Andy, Allbert and Sheldon short stories
by lolzwaitwhat
Summary: (Based off of my An, Ann n Anny storyline) Short stories about Andy, Allbert and Sheldon's generation, set before they go to high school.
1. Secrets (Sheldon)

Six year old Sheldon Kanker sat on top of a hill and looked down upon a field of flowers, smiling down at them as butterflies and bees fluttered from flower to flower, gathering as much nectar and pollen as they could.

He loved it here.

It was a special place for him and his family, his dad had found this place as a child and made it his special place, carving a J+A in the tree that Sheldon was leaning against. His dad shared this place with his mom on their first date, making it their 'secret place' where they would go when it was warm and talk or read comics or play handheld videogames and pretty much anything they wanted to do. When April was born, they took her home, then took her here, where she laughed for the first time when a butterfly landed on the tip of her nose. Sheldon was brought her too, only it was pretty cold when he was born, so he and April were bundled together in a nice, warm blanket and brought here. Sheldon had been crying, he didn't like the cold, but as soon as they arrived here, they saw a doe and a baby deer snuggled together in the middle of the field and Sheldon stopped crying to watch them.

Later on, once they could both walk, they would dash through the flowers, laughing as their parents would scoop them up, cover them in kisses then put them back down to start all over again.

Sheldon was rarely ever here alone, normally he came here with his family, but today, he had decided to enjoy the solace of a late summer afternoon alone.

Soon he would go to school, not kindergarten, but _grade_ school.

There would be _no_ more naps. _No _more snack time (but he still had lunch time, thank goodness). _No_ more free play (it would now be limited to a small period of time after lunch called 'recess').

He'd have homework. (Yuck.) He'd have required reading. (Boring) And there was the ever-present threat that Andy and Allbert would _not_ be in the same class as him.

And he wasn't sure he could handle that.

He had always had his sister and his cousins with him in daycare back at Miss Rachel's farm, then when his sister left for kindergarten, he only had Andy and Allbert until noon, then she would come back for after school daycare and lunch. When he finally got to school (kindergarten) he would see April in the car, then they'd have to go to different parts of the school and he'd only have Andy and Allbert until he got home at three and would wait for April at the bus stop.

He wasn't sure if he would be able to hold himself together if he didn't have those two with him in the same class. Heavens knows if he'd even survive the first day of first grade without them.

He sat in his spot, pondering what he would do if, Heaven forbid, he had to be separated from them, when he heard something…

It sounded like…

Was someone crying?

He hopped to his feet and turned his back to the field of flora below, trying to find the source of the crying…

Until he found it.

There was a little girl with curly black hair, who wore a gray oversize sweater with sleeves that extended past her fingertips and down to her knees and jean shorts. She was sobbing into her excess sleeves and curled up in a ball on the ground.

Now, Sheldon did _not_ know this girl, he'd never so much as _seen_ her before, but he saw that she was sad and alone and that she needed help, so he raced down the hill and quickly managed to locate her.

He stopped roughly three feet away from her and got a better look at her.

She was _tiny_ compared to him, her clothes and her pose made her just seem smaller.

Her knees were scuffed and bleeding a bit, her sweater was torn where her palms probably were. There were twigs stuck in her hair and dirt and grass stains on her clothes.

"Are you okay? Do you need a band-aid?" he asked, concerned. She jumped at the sound of his voice and looked up at him, fear bright in her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. She began to tremble and moved to crawl backwards, only for Sheldon to hold his hands up, as if showing he was unarmed. "It's okay! I'm not gonna hurt you." He promised.

She heard the sincerity in his voice and looked up at him, still crying. He reached into his pockets and pulled out the band-aids Allbert had given him. "Want me to put these on your owies?" he asked her. Her lip quivered as she nodded and Sheldon quickly closed the distance between them, knelt down beside her and gently placed the band-aids on her knees, then to her surprise, he gave each of them a kiss.

"My Mommy says that if you kiss owies, they stop hurting and get better faster." He explained as he gently took her hands and placed band-aids on a few bleeding scratches and kissed her palms, making her face turn bright pink.

"All better!" he announced, then gave her a big smile.

"t-t-t-thank you…" she said softly. His smile grew bigger, "You're welcome!" he said, then he asked, "What's your name?"

"M-Maggie."

He brightened, "Hi Maggie! I'm Sheldon!" he then waited a moment before asking, "Maggie, are you lost?"

She nodded as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve, only to wince when she realized that it was wet and cold, Sheldon slipped his hand into his jacket sleeve and offered it to her. She hesitated, then took it with a thankful nod and wiped her face.

"I-I-I just moved here…" she sniffled, "My Mommy and Daddy…were helping the men…move our things into the house… I was… playing hide and seek with… my brothers… I-I tried hiding behind a bush and… fell… and…" her eyes began to water again, "I don't know how to get back home!" She cried as tears poured down her face, "I'm scared!" she then pulled Sheldon into a hug and bailed into his shirt.

Sheldon looked down at the crying girl clinging to his chest. He had _no __**idea**_ what to do here, but he knew to help her get back home, she'd need to be calm and tell him where she lived.

Something to calm her down…

Then he spotted a deer passing in the distance.

He smiled and gently pulled her off of him, "If I show you something pretty, will you stop crying?" She looked up at him, unsure of what to really say to that.

Sheldon took her silence as a 'yes' and pulled her up onto his back and gave her a piggy back ride all the way up the hill.

When she saw the field, her eyes widened and an amazed gasp slipped from her lips.

Sheldon gently put her down on the ground so she would be sitting against the tree and sat down next to her, "I know!" he said cheerfully… then he remembered that this place was _supposed_ to be his family's secret place.

He was in so much trouble!

… Unless she could keep this place a secret too.

He quickly looked at her, trying to play it cool so he wouldn't launch her right back into a fit of crying, "This is just between us, okay?" he said, putting a finger against his buck teeth. She quickly nodded and covered her mouth with her hands, sending her sweater sleeves slapping against her cheeks.

Sheldon relaxed and smiled at her, making her cheeks turn red, "Good!" he said, "I live near here and my Mommy and big sister are home, if you want, I can take you there and we can have them help us get you home!" Maggie smiled, grateful, "Thank you, Sheldon." She said warmly.

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Later that day, Sheldon, along with his mom and sister, were able to find Maggie's new house and reunite her with her family, who were relieved that she was fine.

Maggie sat in her new bedroom, sitting at a small play table by the window, crayons spewed all over the table top and fresh drawings of flowers, butterflies and bees were stacked beside her.

"Maggie?" her mom called in as she opened the door, "It's time for bed, Sweetheart."

"Okay, Mommy." She said as she put her crayons back into their box and hopped into bed. Her mom walked over to her bed to tuck her in, when the drawing Maggie had been working on caught her eye, she picked it up and held it up to her.

It had her and Sheldon sitting on the hill with the sea of flowers below.

"What's this drawing about, Maggie?"

Maggie looked at her mom and, with a twinkle in her eye, said, "It's a secret, Mommy."


	2. Worth the Wait (AllbertLarry & Terry)

Allbert tossed and turned in his mother's old bed at his grandparent's house, frowning. Flashes of the day making him wince as he tried to reposition himself into a more comfortable position on the bed, where his mother's scent managed to waft into his nostrils despite the years she had been absent from the bed.

His poor mother.

Tears burned in his eyes as he shut them harder, trying to shut the image of his mom panting with her hand on her belly, her expression pained and her voice higher then usual, clear fluid all over the kitchen floor, the cookies they had made still cooling on the kitchen counter, crying out his father's name. The panicked expression on his father's face when he saw Allbert standing on his tip toes on the stool he had been standing on while helping his mother bake, trying to reach a roll of paper towels to help clean up the mess on the floor and his mom clutching the edge of the counter with one hand and her pregnant belly with the other, taking deep breaths.

His dad had swooped them up, only for his mom to tell him that they had time, that they should clean the mess up first and call her parents to make sure they had her old room set up for Allbert tonight, as well as to wrap up the cookies they had made so Allbert could take them to his Aunt Anny and Uncle Tee's house for he and his cousins to enjoy while they played.

Allbert didn't know what to do except gather more paper towels and cleaning solution so his father could clean up… _whatever _came out of his mom and grabbing a paper plate and a roll of tin foil that his mom used to contain the cookies they had made, making strange noises as she took large breaths in and out, while his father rushed upstairs to get 'the bags'. They then made some calls while gathering toys and things for Allbert's playdate next door and told him that his grandparents would be picking him up and that he would be staying with them over night.

"So are the babies coming tonight?" Allbert asked his parents, confused, as his mother got off the phone with her parents and his father returned to toss another bag into the back of the van. His new younger brothers weren't supposed to come until next week, they were here early.

His mother winced as she knelt down to his eyelevel, then gently placed her hands on the sides of his face, her breath labored, as if she was strained from large amounts of physical labor, "We (he) believe so (who) Allbert." She managed, "(He) We (who) will be (he) at the (who) doctor's (he) will you (who) be good (he) while (who) we're (he) gone? (who)"

Allbert nodded, although he wished he could help his mother in some way.

After all, she wouldn't be like this if it hadn't been for him.

It had started roughly nine months ago, in December, it was getting close to Christmas and Allbert had been feeling a little less spirited then he normally was around this time of year.

He had been the only one without a brother or sister out of all his cousins, but it hadn't really bothered him until he started noticing that everyone around him had a sibling to enjoy the upcoming holidays with, except him. April and Sheldon had always been together, but Andy's sudden desire to share everything he knew about Christmas with his younger sisters left him feeling left out. His parents were often out, shopping and working and, even though they did their best to spend as much time as they could with him, Allbert sometimes had to go to his grandparent's house while waiting for his parents to return home.

And while normally he had his mother's cousin, Luca, to play with whenever his cousins and parents were busy, but, unfortunately, he had started spending more time with a girl he liked then with Allbert. Leaving him to suddenly feel excluded.

He felt… lonely.

So lonely that he couldn't sleep that night, finally, after thinking about it for a while, he had found a solution to his problem, but he _had_ to be sure. He got up and walked to his parents' room and patted his father's hand. He woke with a start and startled his mother and Allbert as well.

"Allbert?" his father had groaned, realizing the one who had woken him up was his own son, he then apologized to him and his mother for scaring them, before rubbing his eyes, "What's up, buddy?" he asked groggily.

"Did you have a nightmare?" his mother asked, her voice tired, but worried.

He shook his head, "I'm sorry for waking you both, but I've been up all night trying to figure something out, I think I have the answer but I need to be sure…" He looked up to his parents, they were still lying on the bed, his mother's head on his father's shoulder as they both looked at him, they nodded, half-wake, ready to hear his question. "Mother, Father, do you think I could ask Santa for a sibling?" he asked.

"What?" they cried in unison, both of his parents had jolted up into sitting positions, now fully awake, his mother turned on the light, making them all wince from the sudden change in light. After they had all adjusted, Allbert went on to explain his wish to his parents.

"I know it's a big wish, but I've been very good this year and…" he looked down at the feet of his footie pajamas bashfully, "I would like to have someone to play with when Andy and Sheldon are busy with their families, Luca's busy with his crush and when you two are busy with work." He said softly. His father lifted him up onto the bed with them, setting him between them as his mother informed him that "I'm very sorry, Allbert, but I'm afraid that Santa doesn't give children siblings for Christmas." Allbert pouted and his hung his head, his bottom lip began to quiver and his eyes began to sting as they filled with tears.

"But…" his father said with a warm smile as he gently put his finger under his son's chin and lifted it up so the two were looking each other in the eyes (or eye in Larie's case), "Your mother and I _can_ manage to get you a little brother or sisterall by ourselves." Allbert perked up, joy radiating off his face as he wiped his eyes, "Really?" His father nodded, "Really. But it'll take a while." Allbert looked at him, confused, "How long?"

"About nine months." He said, "Would you be willing to wait that long?" he asked. Allbert nodded eagerly, "Yes! I can wait!" he said squirming with glee, he was going to get a little brother or sister to play with and build things with and teach things too, he was so excited! His father looked at his mother, his smile so big that it curled up his cheeks, she looked between her grinning husband and her ecstatic son, who started bouncing up and down on the bed on his bum, then sighed, "Your father and I will start tomorrow." She said tiredly, a small smile on her face as she kissed them both on the cheek, his father flushed and licked his lips eagerly.

"Can I be of assistance?" Allbert asked, hoping that with his help, the baby could come quicker. His parents' eyes widened, "No!" they cried in unison, making his lower lip quiver again. His father then added, "We have to talk to the stork, he gets very flustered around kids, so we'll need to speak with him alone."

Allbert looked up at his father, confused, "But if the stork delivers babies, then…"

"He gets very emotional when he sees the babies he helped bring to their parents again." His mother said softly, gently combing his hair off his face with her fingers and wiping away a few stray tears, "it's hard to talk to him when he's crying about how big you've gotten." She replied with a warm smile. Allbert thought about it for a second then nodded in understanding, it made sense, his grandmother (Ann's Mom) did the same thing every time she saw him. Always hugging him tightly and covering him with kisses, crying with a proud smile on her face at how much he had grown since the last time she had seen him.

He saw his grandmother once a week.

"It'll be fine, and this way you can still play with your cousins at Aunt An and Uncle Jay's house tomorrow." His mother continued. He nodded eagerly then suddenly felt tired, he yawned and rubbed his eyes. "In the meantime, you should get some sleep, Buddy." His father said, kissing him on the head, Allbert looked up at his parents, "May I sleep with you two tonight?" he asked. His parents smiled, his mother pulled him into her arms, then his father wrapped his arms around them both and turned out the light before the three of them carefully leaned back until their heads gently leaned back into the pillows, Allbert fell asleep with a large smile on his face, his father did too, but before he fell asleep, he listened as his parents talked, feigning sleep before it truly overcame him.

"I'm surprised you agreed so quickly." His father said to his mother, a little teasing in his voice.

His mother was quiet for a minute before she said, "W-well, we did say we'd have another child once we had some money saved up and honestly I was going to talk to you about it eventually…" Allbert felt his father pull him and his mother closer and heard him kiss his mother. Then there was a moment of silence before he heard his mother's voice again.

"Larie… you didn't put him up to this, did you?" His mother asked anxiously.

"Ann, if I knew him just _asking_ us for a sibling would get us another child, I would have been trying to get him to say that as his first words." His father joked.

"You're ridiculous." His mother groaned, kissing his father.

"And you're lucky our son is right here or I'd start making his new brother or sister _right now_." He replied, pulling them even closer to him.

A few weeks later, his mother had gotten something called a 'pregnancy test', his mother was one of the smartest people he knew (Author: up there with her is his father, his grandparents and his great grandmother, who, much like his grandmother, would _also _cry as she admired how big he had gotten, only he saw her every _two_ weeks), so he was _sure_ she'd pass, when he told her that, she blushed and kissed him all over then tickled him until he was laughing so hard that tears trickled down his cheeks. After a little while, his father looked at something that resembled a thermometer, his arm around his mother's waist, looking proudly the thing in his hand, "Good news, buddy," his father said, showing him the thermometer, where there was a pink plus sign in a little screen, "Your new brother or sister is on the way." He said, a little pride in his voice.

A few months later they had gone to the doctor's and learned that it wasn't just _one_ new brother or sister Allbert could look forward to having, but _two._

Allbert opened his eyes, unwilling to watch any more flashes of the past, his back flat on the mattress.

He wondered how his parents and the babies were doing.

After getting dropped off at Andy's house with an overnight bag and his parents briefly explaining that his grandparents would pick him up after work today and thanked them for having him, he hadn't heard or seen them since. His grandparents picked him up at about six in the afternoon and then they went out to dinner with his great-aunts and Luca, who briefly mentioned visiting his mother and father at the doctor's, but gave nothing in regards to how they were or about his new siblings.

Afterwards, he was brought to his grandparent's house and, after his grandmother told him a few stories about his mother when she was young, his grandparents helped him get ready for bed, gave him a kiss and tucked him into bed, leaving him to wallow in his worries over how his parents and new siblings were alone in the darkness of his mother's old bedroom.

He was so tired… but his mind wouldn't stop concocting new concerns for him to fret over.

Finally, he felt his mind drift off and fell asleep.

"Allbert." His grandmother called softly, "Are you awake?"

The six year old pushed himself up into a sitting position and replied, in a tired voice, "Yes, Grandma, I'm awake."

His Grandmother peaked into the room to confirm his claim, then opened it fully once she saw that he was sitting up.

"Your father called and said that your new little brothers are ready to meet you whenever you're ready..." Allbert jumped out of bed and began unbuttoning his pajamas and grabbing the clothes his parent had packed for him to wear and threw them on, then ran past his grandma with an 'excuse me' and dashed into the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair, wash his face and go to the bathroom before running back into the bedroom, his hands still dripping wet from washing them, quickly and neatly packing the overnight bag before struggling to heave it over his shoulder and say, "I'm ready."

His grandpa walked into the room and saw his grandson up, dressed and his belongings packed up, and said, "I guess you'd prefer having breakfast on the ride over to the doctor's?"

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Allbert raced down the halls, stopping when he reached intersections or corners and jogged in place as he waited for his elderly grandparents to catch up to him before running ahead again, repeating the room number that his mother and new brothers were in as he did.

He was skidding to a stop by another corner when, to his surprise and his grandparent's amusement, his father scooped him up before he skidded to a stop and lifted him up to his eye level, wearing the same clothes he had worn when he left Allbert at his aunt and uncle's house yesterday.

"Whoa, easy, Buddy." He said softly, "You'll crash into somebody."

"Daddy!" Allbert cried, hugging his exhausted father. His dad smiled warmly and bounced him in his arms a moment before whispering, "You ready to meet your new little brothers?" Allbert's eyes watered as he nodded, "Yes, Daddy."

His dad opened the door, revealing a white room where his mother sat on a bed in the middle, wearing pink scrubs and smiling while holding two light blue bundles and looking at them lovingly.

"Hey Muffin," his dad called, holding Allbert up a little higher, "Got another one for ya." His mother looked over at them and her smile grew larger at the sight of them, she moved over a bit in the bed for her husband and eldest son to sit down beside her. His father then placed Allbert in between his parents while his mother carefully placed a bundle in each of his trembling arms, "Allbert, meet Lawrence Gerald Kanker and Terrance Harold Kanker, your new little brothers." She said in a gentle tone.

Allbert admired the tiny creatures that snoozed in his arms as his parents each wrapped an arm around him and the other arm around the sleeping babes, helping him hold them up.

"Even though it will be a while before we can play together, this was definitely worth the wait." Allbert said to his parents, who chuckled and kissed the top of his head.

"Got that right, Buddy." His father agreed.

"I couldn't agree more." His mother replied.


	3. Man of the House (Allbert)

Twelve year old Allbert Kanker sat in his parents' bed, a tablet in his lap, while his mother and siblings slept beside him. He looked at the shapes the light from the tablet made on their snoozing faces and then at the clock. His mother had run a high fever the morning all seven of them were to hop on a plane and go to Australia, where his father had another sculpture job. That alone made his father want to call up the client and postpone the job, but it got worse, Emma starting crying and fussing, when they all went to see what was wrong, they learned that she had a high fever… right before she vomited all over herself and Allbert had to give her a quick bath while his mother went scurring into another bathroom to be sick, too.

Once Emma and their mom were tucked into bed, the remaining five members of the family narrowed down what the issue could be due to the symptoms only to realize that the two had a bad case of food poisoning, urging them to decide that next time any of them were going to go on a trip and went out to dinner the night before, to go somewhere where they knew the food was always prepared perfectly, like Selina's, instead of that 'charming' new Italian place a block away.

His dad was picking up the phone and dialing the client's number, when Allbert stopped him, "We've got this, Father, Go. We'll call you when your flight lands and inform you if we need you to come home to help us with Mother and Emma."

"When I land, it'll be midnight here." His father replied, "And what if your mom and sister need to go to the hospital?"

"We'll call Aunt Anny, Uncle Tee, Aunt An, Uncle Jay or which ever of our neighbors are home and can drive them there." Larry replied.

"And we'll call Luca to help as well if it gets too hectic." Terry offered.

Mildred looked up at her father with wide sparkling eyes, "Daddy, we'll take good care of Mommy and Emma. I promise."

Their father seemed hesitant, then sighed, "Alright, but if anything happens, you call me right away and I'm taking the first flight back home."

"Yes, father." His sons said in unison, saluting their dad as if they were soldiers.

"I'm spider girl!" Mildred said with a salute.

Their father left, giving everyone a hug and kiss good bye and looking remorseful for having to leave them at all.

Thorough out the course of the day, one by one, his siblings all suddenly succumbed to nausea and felt weak, tired and downright dreadful, leaving them to slip into bed with their mother and infant sister and leaving poor Allbert to take care of all five of them.

Their mother apologized over and over, sobbing, blaming herself for getting her babies sick and for being the reason that they all couldn't go on the trip with their father. Allbert shook his head and told his mother that everyone got sick, and that it was no one's fault, that she should focus on getting better and then she could worry about Emma, Mildred, Larry and Terry. She looked at him, tears pooling in her eyes before she pulled him into a warm embrace and thanked him for being such a wonderful boy.

Looking back at it now, it reminded him of the first time his dad had left on a sculpture job without him and his mom when he was three. Allbert was in his parent's bed, just as he was now, his mother sleeping beside him…

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FLASHBACK!

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Allbert had been sick all day, making him and his mother have to miss out on going with his father to India, where he had been commissioned to do a metal sculpture for this big, fancy hotel.

He didn't feel ill anymore, but he felt horrible that, because of him, not only could he and his mom not join his dad and go to such an amazing place, but that because of him, his dad was there alone.

He sniffled. His mother told him that it wasn't his fault, that every body got sick. His father told him the same thing, but it did nothing to ease his guilt.

He felt tears roll down his cheeks and soon he was outright bawling. His mother woke with a start, "Allbert?" she said, pulling him into her arms, "What's wrong, sweetheart? Did you have a nightmare?"

"It's…All… My… FAAAUUULLLTT!" he wailed.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him, wiping tears away and looking at him, concerned.

"Because. I. Got. Sick. We. Couldn't. Go. And. Now. Daddy's. All. Alone. And. It's. All. My. FAULT!" he said through labored breaths before more tears poured down his cheeks and he let out a loud cry. His mother held him tightly, "Shhhhh… It's alright, Allbert, it's alright…" she said softly stroking his hair back off his face, "Shhh…"

He cried for what felt like hours until he just didn't have the energy to do so anymore, then he just sniffled and hugged his mom, stray tears sliding down his face.

"Allbert, would you like to talk to your father?" his mother asked softly. Allbert's head tilted up in a flash, his eyes wide and remnants of tears clinging to his face, "We can talk to Daddy?" She smiled at him softly and wiped at the moisture on his face, "Of course we can," she said in a gentle tone.

She then sat up, placed him on her lap and picked up a tablet from beside her bed and pressed a button, lighting up the screen and making them both wince from the change in light before she pressed one of the apps and scrolled through a list.

Allbert snuggled into his mom's stomach and hugged her tight, she smiled and wrapped one arm around him and gave him a kiss on the forehead as a familiar face came onto the screen.

"Hey. What are you two doing up?" His father asked them, sounding pretty tired himself.

"Daddy!" Allbert cried, a smile lighting up his face and his arms reaching out towards the image of his dad on the screen. His mother chuckled softly as she brought the tablet closer to him, both of her blue haired boys gently placing their hands on the screen for a moment then moved them so they could all see each other.

"Hey Buddy, good to see you're feeling better." His dad said in a gentle tone. Allbert felt a pang in his chest and his lip quivered, "I'm sorry, Daddy." He said, his voice thick with emotion, "If I didn't get sick, Mommy and I would be with you and you wouldn't be all alone…!"

"All, everyone gets sick, it's no one's fault, it just happens." Allbert's lip quivered again and tears began to build up in his eyes, his mom looked at the screen, and shook her head, informing him that saying that wouldn't help calm their child down. His dad then held up his hands "Hey, now, don't cry! I'm actually really glad you called!"

"R-really?" Allbert sniffled.

"Of course, Buddy, I miss you guys." Allbert's chin began to bounce and tears began to slip down his cheeks, "But I also need your help."

Allbert blinked the tears from his eyes and looked at his father, curious, "Help?" he repeated.

"Yeah, see, since I'm not home, I need you to be the man of the house for me while I'm gone. Can you do that for me, All?" Allbert looked at his father, his eyes wide with awe.

"Allbert?"

"What does a man of the house do?" he asked softly, stunned by the honor that his father had just bestowed upon him.

"Well, in this case, I want you to look out for your mom and help her out around the house, that sort of thing, just until I get home in a few days. Can you do that for me, All?"

Allbert nodded vigorously, "Yes! I can do that, Daddy!" His dad smiled at him, "Good." He then placed his hand on the screen again, "I'm glad I can count on you, Allbert." He said. Allbert placed his hand on the screen and his mother placed hers on top of his.

"We love you, Larie, please be careful and come home swiftly and safely." His mom said in a warm voice. "Love you too, Muffin." He said, a big smile on his face, "Love you, Buddy." He said to his son.

"Love you, Daddy!" Allbert said, now chipper and even a little excited, "Don't worry, I'll be a good man of the house while you're gone!"

His dad smiled, "I know you can." There were some shouts coming from the background and his dad looked away, "Aw, hush, I'll be there in a sec!" he snapped at the shouting individuals, then looked back at the screen, "I've gotta go, I love you two, good night."

"Good morning, Larie." His mother replied.

"Good morning, Daddy!" Allbert echoed. Then the screen went black.

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End of Flashback

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Allbert heard a buzz from the night stand, jolting him from his flashback. He managed to climb over his family without disturbing them and turned the alarm off on his mom's phone and saw the time:

11:55 pm.

'Father should call in soon.' Allbert thought as he fumbled over his family and flopped back into his spot in front of the tablet and waited.

Finally, after the longest five minutes ever, a ringtone came in from the tablet, Allbert pressed his finger against the screen and his father's face came into view, he seemed a bit paler then usual, but long flights often took a lot out of people.

"Hey All. I guess everyone else fell asleep huh?" his father guessed.

"Indeed. Taking care of the ill is not easy work." Allbert said, leaving out the part about everyone else but him getting sick and him being the one taking care of them all.

"No, it's not." His father agreed, "But I know that you can handle anything that comes your way, All. And I'm very proud of you for taking charge earlier, your mom and your brothers and sisters are lucky to have you around." Allbert felt his eyes water with tears of pride at his father's praise, then he bit his lip, "Father?"

"Yeah All?"

"I haven't _exactly_ followed orders this time around…"

"Oh?"

"You see, as the day progressed, Terry, Larry and Mildred all became ill too and I didn't call you like you had asked me to." He tilted his head down, ashamed, "I'm very sorry."

His dad looked stunned, "so you've been taking care of _five people_ all by yourself?"

"Yes, I should've called, I'm very…"

"All, taking care of five people is a lot of work, I can understand that you'd forget to call." His dad said, then smiled at him proudly, "I guess I left the right guy in charge, huh?"

Allbert smiled back, "Indeed, Father. Do you know when you're coming home?"

"Hmm… Well, since I got sick at the airport, they sent me to a doctor nearby and after a long day of tests, he has told me I am unfit to fly today and even put a call into my client and explained my circumstances, so, if I can just get my key in…"

Allbert heard a click below, "I'll see you in a few minutes." His father finished, then ended the call.

Allbert heard the front door open and their burglar alarm go off, waking the other occupants of the bed while he heard the door close and faint swears from downstairs as his dad unarmed it. Once the alarm was off, he heard feet banging up the stairs and open the bedroom door before flipping on the lights, making them wince from the change of light.

"Larie?" his mom asked groggily, a disgruntled Emma curled up in her arms.

"I'm home." He said with a smile.

"FATHER!" the little ones cried, bouncing on the bed excitedly as he came over and hopped down on the bed beside Allbert, and pulling his family close and Allbert smiled as he felt his family hug him tight. "Father, now that you're home, I'll take it that I don't have to be the man of the house anymore, correct?" His father smiled and gently ruffled his hair, "Yeah, Buddy, I've got it."

"Good, because I believe I'm about to be ill." Allbert then pushed away from his family and ran to the bathroom and began throwing up, his parents quickly following him in and comforting him as he heaved up the contents of his stomach, leaving Larry, Terry and Mildred to comfort the now sobbing Emma, who was upset that her eldest brother was barfing his guts out in the next room.

Once he finished, he wiped his mouth with a square of toilet paper and muttered, "Everyone gets sick." His parents chuckled as they hugged him and helped him up and helped him towards the bed, tucking him in beside his siblings and slipping in on either side of their snuggling children.

Allbert smiled as he watched his mother and younger siblings quickly succumb to sleep, then looked over at his dad, who was smiling proudly at him. He felt his father's fingers ruffle through his blue locks, and smiled as he heard his father say, "Thanks for being the man of the house while I was gone, All, it was a load offa my mind to know that you were here to take care of things."

"Happy to help, Father." Allbert said wearily as his eyelids drooped, "Although, I think I might spread some of the responsibilities to Larry and Terry next time you are out on a commission without us." He let out a sickening belch, then added, "Especially when we are all ill from food poisoning."

"Sounds good to me, Allbert. Good night, Buddy."

"Good morning, Father."


	4. I'm Your Number One Fan (Madeline&Andy)

Thirteen-year-old Madeline Hill smiled as she made her way to her locker before she hopped into a limo and went home. It had been a long day, especially since her favorite band, an underground group called 'the Jawbreakers', released a new single last night and she had only heard it once after she had downloaded onto her computer and iPod before having to go to bed to get up for school the next morning.

But even after hearing it once, the song had been stuck in her head all day, but to be fair, their playlist was one that was almost always on repeat in her head.

The band consisted of three boys, 'E.R' who did back up singing and rapped for the group, 'Break' the one who played all the instruments and also helped sing back up, and her absolute favorite, 'Jaw' the lead singer.

She had a crush on Jaw. His voice had to be the most wonderful thing she'd ever heard in her life, which was all she knew of him since she'd never seen him before, or any of the band. Nobody had, that was one of the many great things about the band (beside their music) was that no one knew who they were. It added a taste of mystery that made Jaw all the more dreamy to her. He could be everything she wanted and more in her mind, although, she still dreamed of meeting him in person.

She eagerly opened her locker and pulled out her bag, shoved her books inside of it and pulled out her iPod and jammed the ear buds in her ears and immediately turned on the song and walked towards the exit.

She relaxed at the sound of Jaw's voice as he sang, it was so smooth, so soothing, as if washing the other annoying sounds away… Then she felt a bump and a shrill, male voice call out, "HEY! WATCH IT!"

Speaking of annoying…

She paused the song, irritated as she looked down at the obnoxious leprechaun known as Andy Kanker, who was pulling himself off of the ground and scowling at her, "What's your problem, Maddie?" he snapped.

She felt her eye twitch involuntarily, she _hated_ being called Maddie, everyone knew this, but Andy Kanker had to be the only one who had the _gall_ to call her that, "There's an annoying little leprechaun in my way, what's yours?" she said bitterly.

"A friggin' stick woman rammed into me!" He replied snappishly, he _hated_ it when people made fun of his height and Madeline was one of the few that had the guts to do it to his face. But instead of grumbling about her being lucky she was a girl or they'd be mopping what was left of her off of the lockers, he gave her a bewildered look, "And what's with the third degree? I didn't wham into _you_ and knock _you_ over."

Madeline's scowl only deepened, instead of listening to Jaw's beautiful voice, she was listening to Andy Kanker's maddening orchestra of his squeaky, pitchy voice rant at her because she hadn't noticed his tiny body walking towards his locker.

"I just want to go home, okay!" she hissed, her iPod grasped tightly in her hand. Andy took note of the iPod and earbuds in her ears and then asked, "What were you even listening to that was so important that you couldn't even look where you were going?"

"None of your business!" she barked back. Andy's frown sank into an irritated snarl as he snatched the iPod out of her hand and looked at the song she was listening to, somehow evading her tries to grab him or get her iPod back while he did so, "The Jawbreakers?" he read out loud, then looked up at her, surprised, "I would've thought you never listened to anything but Mozart or some other dead European guy." Madeline took this chance to get her iPod back, "_For your information_, I like _all_ kinds of music, and this band just _happens _to be my _favorite_." She said, then she jerked her head away from him and began walking towards the exit.

"Oh, and why's that?" he asked, his snarl replaced with his trademark snide grin, laughter evident in his grating voice. She whirled around and glared at him, this little red haired troll always got under her skin and she _hated _it. She hated _him_.

"Because I like the music!" she cried, ready to slug the smug little squirt.

"Ya wouldn't be this mad if it was just that, Maddie." Andy said, his snide smirk changing into a knowing one. Madeline was shaking with anger at this point, she stomped up, her arm raised, ready to smack him, only for him to hit the nail on the head, "You _like_ one of those guys, don't cha?" he guessed. Her hand froze in mid-air, and her face turned red as he tilted his head up, showing her that his smirk was now wide enough to reveal the unnatural blue tooth that sat in his mouth.

He had her. He had her and wouldn't let up until she came clean. The best thing to do would be to come clean and then he'd leave it, that had to be the only thing good about him, well, _that,_ _and_ he was the perfect height for her to use as an arm rest.

"Jaw." She said, through gritted teeth. Instead of his face falling with disinterest like she had hoped, his grin grew bigger, "_Jaw?_" He repeated, then started laughing, "_You like Jaw_?" he blurted, as tears of laughter began to form in the corners of his eyes.

"_**What's so funny**_!" she seethed, grabbing him by his polka dot vest and lifted him off the ground so they were at eye level with one hand, rearing the other one back so she could unleash a powerful punch into his joyful face.

"_How can you like someone you don't even know_?" he shrieked, laughing hysterically. Madeline paused at that. He was right, other then his voice, Madeline didn't know Jaw at all, he could be anybody. She lowered him, suddenly consumed with doubt.

She didn't know Jaw, she didn't know what he looked like or what kind of person he was or even his real name. She knew nothing about the boy whose voice made her heart feel light, even when it was weighed down with painful troubles.

And she was probably never going to know.

And she would never probably thank him for brightening her bad days and making the good ones better.

She felt tears burn in her eyes and her stomach twist with dread as she dropped Andy Kanker to the floor, he hissed out some swears as he got up, ready to tell her off, only to stifle himself as soon as he saw her expression.

His face filled with panic and he looked from side to side, only to see that they were the only ones in the hall as she began to sniffle.

"Aw, come on!" he pleaded, "Don't cry! You could always e-mail him or somethin' and get to know 'um!" he pointed out. She stopped and looked at him, Andy was looking up at her, his expression was a surprising mix of concern and guilt, well, at least the bottom half was, for all she knew his eyes could be sparkling with amusement under the safety of his thick red curls.

"Yeah, because all celebrities check their fan mail!" she said sarcastically, "My mom is a famous actress, Andy! She never reads her fan mail because some of her fans are crazy psychos!" she reminded him as tears streamed down her face.

Andy nervously bit his lip, as if he was holding something back, then sighed, "What if… I told you… that I know his IM?" he said in a quiet voice, which was new to her, since Andy was always shouting and yelling.

Who knew he came with volume control?

"Yeah, (sniffle) right." She huffed, her tears flowing faster down her cheeks.

"I'm _serious_!" he hissed, continuously glancing around, looking nervous, "My mom is his agent and manager, so I know the guy pretty well, if I give you his IM so you can talk to him and get to know him, will you stop crying?"

Madeline wiped at her face, "How do I know you're telling the truth?" she whimpered.

"It has my mom's contact information on their web page under 'contacts'." He said plainly.

Madeline took some deep breaths and finally calmed down, then she said, "Okay…" Andy looked relieved that he had gotten her to stop crying, "But if you're lying…!" she said, trying to look intimidating.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he mumbled as he pulled a wrinkly sheet of loose leaf from his backpack and fumbled around for a pen, when he finally unearthed one from the mess that was his backpack he scribbled a name down and handed it to her, "It's Monday, so he should be able to talk after eight PM."

"Why do you know that?"

"My mom's his agent and manager, I know _everything_ about him." he replied flatly, and with that, he zipped up his bag, gathered his belongings from his locker and walked towards the exit.

Madeline waited until the door closed behind him before squealing with delight and jumping on her toes as she clutched the page close to her chest.

.

At seven fifty-five that night, Madeline sat in front of her personal computer, wearing her best clothes (even though they couldn't see each other, she still got dressed up to boost her confidence), staring at the screen, waiting for the red dot next to the username that Andy had given her (JawSingerForTheDeep) to turn green.

She waited in agony for five more minutes before the red dot turned green. She squealed, then clicked on it and sent an invitation for a chat.

A window opened up and she saw Jaw's username beside the line, 'who are you and how did you get my im handle?'

Madeline smiled, excited, and began to type, 'My name is Madeline, I'm your number one fan! Andy Kanker gave me your IM username.'

'andy?! howd ya strong arm it from him?'

'I didn't really… I kinda cried after he said something to me…'

'so, he made you cry'

Madeline looked at the screen, her stomach twisting as she re-read his reply. Now, she didn't know Andy's mom personally, but her mother had great trust in her as her agent and, luckily for her family, very good about keeping their contact information and their address confidential, well, as confidential as Hollywood would allow them. If Jaw told Andy's mother that Andy had given some strange girl his contact info just so he wouldn't get called out for making a girl cry, he'd probably get in huge trouble, and while she didn't like him, she didn't want him to be punished for simply trying to make her feel better.

'Not on purpose!' she typed quickly, 'It was more like, what he said was right and there was nothing I could do about it other then cry.'

'what did he say?'

'That's a long story…'

'ive got time ;)'

She chuckled at the emoticon and began typing away, feeling her heart lighten as she wrote her response, IM-ing until it was past midnight and her dad told her to go to bed.

She woke up the next day with a skip in her step, sure she didn't get much sleep, but she had talked to the boy of her dreams for hours last night and couldn't have been happier.

She hummed on the ride to school and pranced to her homeroom and slid into her seat, a large grin on her face. Her best friends, Matilda and Maggie looked at her, confused.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Matilda asked.

"Yeah, normally you groan about how early school starts and how you have to get up so early to look perfect, but today you're just beaming." Maggie agreed.

"Well, I…"

BAM!

The girls jumped at the sound and turned to the door to see Allbert and Sheldon with a snoozing Andy held over their heads, panting and out of breath as they quickly slipped him into his seat, letting his face smack into his desk and him to groan and then hopped into their own and collapsed onto the desks before the late bell rang.

Maggie flushed, "G-G-Good morning, Sheldon." She stuttered, her heart fluttering as he turned his head gave her a tired smile back.

"Morning Maggie…" he managed.

"What's with you three?" Matilda asked, then turned to Allbert as she went on to say that, "Normally only Sheldon is dragging Andy's tired butt in here and leaves you free to babble on about random stuff until he tells you to shut up or he'll cram your hat in your mouth and do it for you."

"Yes, well, I'm afraid Andy was up later than usual last night and couldn't get out of bed this morning..." Allbert said, obviously uncomfortable with the completely normal question.

Matilda looked at the exhausted red haired Kanker with a knowing smile on her face and asked, "Future Warfare or Retro Warfare?

"Retro." Andy groaned as he pulled his head up off his desk and slipped his fingers through his bangs and seemed to rub his temples, "Kept getting sniped by some jerkwad and blasted just as I respawned… Stayed up all night trying to track um down and blast um." he banged his fists on his desk as he growled, "but I couldn't find the sneaky little…"

"Let go of me!" a familiar female voice cried, making all six pre-teens jump and turn to see a tall boy with wavy green hair happily hugging a girl his height with long black hair that was curled on the bottom who was doing her best to push him away.

"Ty." Andy growled, annoyed as he pulled himself out of his chair and lead his cousins towards him to separate the two. The Kanker cousins often had to stop Ty and his two friends, Tom and Tim from causing trouble, with the results usually being some sort of fight between the two groups and the six of them going to the principal's office. Tom and Tim quickly jumped into the fray after Andy snatched Ty's victim out of his arms and released her to retreat to the safety of her seat, where she was comforted by her friends and soon a fight broke out between the boys.

After making sure the rescued girl was okay, Madeline, Matilda and Maggie turned away from the reoccurring spectacle and returned to their earlier conversation, "So what were you saying, Madeline?" Maggie asked her.

Madeline opened her mouth, ready to brag about chatting with Jaw from the Jawbreakers, but stopped when she noticed Andy facing her direction out of the corner of her eye, his expression grave, as if silently telling her to keep her mouth shut about chatting with Jaw.

She looked back at her friends, who were looking at her, curious as to why she was being so quiet.

"Well, why are you so cheerful this morning?" Matilda asked.

Madeline's mind quickly processed what could happen if anyone heard her say that she had chatted with Jaw. No doubt people would bug her about how she had managed to do that, and if they found out how she got the information or managed to wrangle his IM address from her, then she, Andy and Jaw would all suffer for it. So, instead, she said, "There is a new song from the Jawbreakers, it came out yesterday and I've been listening to it non-stop!" she then held up her iPod and asked if they wanted to listen too.

They smiled and eagerly agreed, both being fans of the band as well. They listened to the new song with a single ear bud in their ears as the teacher escorted the Kankers, Ty, Tom and Tim to the principal's office.

.

Later, after getting an earful from the principal and shuffling into the boys bathroom, Allbert and Sheldon looked at Andy, their expressions sour.

"I _still_ _**cannot **__**believe**_ you gave her that IM!" Allbert hissed.

"She was crying! I was desperate! You woulda done the same thing!" Andy cried.

Allbert frowned, but couldn't argue his point. Sheldon looked at Andy, his irritation gone from his face and his eyes soft with worry, "Do you trust her, Andy?" he asked quietly.

"…" Andy was silent as his chin sank down until it was tucked against his chest, avoiding eye contact with his cousins/best friends.

"Andy?" Sheldon called gently.

"…Barely." Andy finally huffed, "but I _know_ she'll stay quiet."

Allbert bit his lip nervously, a bit of his lip popping out a bit from the gap in his two front teeth, then he finally spoke in a soft voice, "I certainly hope so, Andy. You know what would happen if anyone found out about us and…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Andy snapped, "Don't worry about it, like I said, she'll keep her mouth shut." He assured them with a dismissive wave of his hand before he reached for the door handle.

"How can you be sure?" Sheldon asked.

Andy looked back at his cousins, smiling easily as he stuffed one hand in his pocket and he pulled the door open with the other.

"Because she's 'my number one fan'." He chuckled.


	5. Pool Party ( Luca and Allbert)

Luca smiled and leapt off the diving board into the big pool in his backyard, it was a warm August day and his moms had invited all of his friends over for a pool party to celebrate his ninth birthday. Mr. Jude was grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, and more while Miss Zoe smeared more sunscreen on her seven and five year olds. Mr. Sanji and Miss Clover were chatting with his mothers and helping move snacks to the nice long picnic table they had all set up earlier that day.

Luca smiled as he felt his body plunge into the cool water, his cool swim trunks with goldfish on it gently pushing against his skin as he sank into the water, he waited a moment before swimming up to the surface and moving out of the way so one of his friends could launch himself off the diving board and scream "CANNON BALL!" before curling up into a ball in an effort to create the largest splash of the day. He pulled himself out of the pool and dashed up to his mothers.

"Careful!" His Aunt Carla cried as she brought a few bowls out of the house with her husband, who was holding bags of pretzels and chips. "Don't run by the pool edge, Luca, you could fall and get hurt." His Uncle Lennard said sternly.

"Sorry." He said, then turned to his mothers, "Are they here yet?" he asked, his blonde hair wet and plastered to his face and his whole body dripping water onto the pavement of the patio as he bounced on his toes, obviously excited.

"No!" one of his mothers, Miranda laughed, "They'll be here soon, Luca, be patient."

"Ann told us that they were going to be here at around three o'clock," Carla told him.

"What time is it now?" He asked.

"A Quarter til Three." His Uncle Lennard replied, looking at his analog watch. Luca looked to his other mother, Fiona, "Two Forty-Five." She translated.

"Honestly Luca, they'll be here soon enough! We'll tell you when they get here, so you can stop asking us every five minutes and go have fun with your friends!" Miranda laughed.

"Fat chance." Fiona chuckled, "He's too excited to see the little one."

The "Little one" she was referring to was Allbert, his cousin Ann's baby boy. Luca adored the little guy and would often ask his mothers if they could invite Ann and her family whenever they were going somewhere (he even asked if they could come to the dentist with them once, but after asking, he then immediately withdrew his request, embarrassed).

He bounced on his toes, he couldn't wait to introduce little Allbert to his friends! He began to run towards his friends, only for his moms to tell him not to run by the pool. He slowed to a walk and hopped down the pool steps to join his friends in the water.

"They'll be here soon!" he announced cheerfully, making his friends faces break out into big smiles.

They may not have met Allbert, but they _did_ know Ann and Larie from last year.

.

FLASHBACK!

.

Luca's eighth birthday party was a pool party, much to his glee, he had been begging his moms to let him have his friends over to play in it ever since they gotten it a few weeks earlier and finally his moms declared that the pool could be entered and offered to make his upcoming birthday party a pool party. He had sent the invitations out early and even helped clean the house a bit before his guests arrived.

"Hey, Luca!" He turned and saw his new cousin-in-law Larie smiling and waving at him, his free arm wrapped around his pregnant cousin's shoulders.

"Ann! Larie!" he cried cheerfully as he dashed out of the pool and ran up to them, only to skid to a stop once he realized that hug-tackling a pregnant woman was probably _not_ a good idea.

The couple smiled at him when he made it to them. Larie was wearing a black tank and green swim shorts and brown flip flops while Ann was wearing a nice summer dress that engulfed her bloated belly along with a nice sun hat and sandals. Larie grabbed the boy in a headlock and gently rubbed his knuckles against the top of his head, "Happy Birthday, Buddy!" he cried as Luca laughed. After a minute, Luca was released so he could greet both of them with a warm hug.

"Happy Birthday, Luca." Ann said sweetly once he released them, then she handed him a large, neatly wrapped package. The boy took it with a big grin on his face, Ann and Larie always either picked out or made awesome presents for him, so he was eager to see what the perfectly prim parcel had inside.

Then Ann inhaled sharply and reached for her growing belly, making Larie and Luca grab hold of her, fear flashing through their eyes as she quietly exhaled, then gave them both an apologetic smile, "It seems that the baby wants to wish you a happy birthday as well." She said, rubbing a spot on her belly.

Luca beamed at that, then asked, "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?"

"Not yet." Larie informed him, "Have you come up with any names yet?" Luca asked.

"We're working on it." Ann informed him, "I'm fond of the name 'Mildred' for a girl and Larie is very keen on 'Allbert' if it's a boy."

"With _two_ Ls." Larie added.

"Why two?"

"Because you remember how Ann's best friends are also named 'An'?" Luca nodded, "They called her 'Double-N' so no one would get them mixed up. So if our son has two Ls in his name, he can be Double-L."

"Okay, but why Allbert?"

"Albert Einstein." The two said in unison. Luca gave them a knowing smile, "You two are such _nerds_." He teased.

"Nerds, huh?" Larie said, his eyes narrowing and a devious grin crawling up his cheeks as he took his shirt off and handed it to his wife, Luca mirrored his expression as he turned and dashed back to the pool, squealing with laughter as Larie quickly caught up, grabbed him by the waist, flipped him upside down then leapt into the deep end, releasing him once they were in the water. The two started laughing once they reached the surface, the other children looked at Larie expectantly, who smiled at the others and asked, "Whose next?" only to be met with a chorus of, "Me! Me! Me!"

They goofed off and played until it was time to eat, when Luca led his friends towards the table, shouting "CHARGE!" and making the adults chuckle. Larie had stayed in the back of the group, obviously tired, and smiled when his wife handed him a towel and patted the seat beside her, which Luca slipped into with a plate full of food and gave Larie a playful raspberry. Larie was shocked by the action, but quickly smirked at him and ruffled his hair, "You're lucky it's your birthday or I'd toss ya back into the pool for that." He said, then helped his wife up so they could get their own plates. Luca and his friends had been fascinated by Ann's choices in food pairings, even copying her when she had placed potato chips on her burger, but their favorite had been when she had put pickle relish on her slice of cake, and then _ate it!_ After they all cried, "Ew!" The adults quickly told them to leave her alone, that pregnant women ate weird things and to stop making her feel bad. Upon seeing that she was, in fact, upset and embarrassed, they all quickly apologized once they realized they hurt her feelings and left her be, although the frightening scowl Larie gave them before continuing to comfort to his wife pretty much insured that they would no longer comment on her food choices.

After the children had eaten their hotdogs, hamburgers and potato chips, sang 'happy birthday' and inhaled their slices of cake, Miranda then announced that it was time for Luca to open his presents, while Fiona insured that the one he got from Ann and Larie would be opened last by passing each gift up to him one at a time.

He opened gift after gift, thanking his friends as he admired each one. He gave his aunt and uncle a big, barely-convincing smile after opening their gift, which was a label maker, telling him that they had given Ann one when she had turned eight as well. Ann had piped in with, "I still have and use it, it's very helpful." Luca nodded, thanked his Aunt and Uncle and gave them both a big hug before he opened his last gift, he ripped the package open to find a brand new skateboard along with knee and elbow pads (he already had a helmet) "Woah! Cool!" he cried, then gave them a hug, it wasn't a jetpack or anything cool like some of the things he'd heard they'd worked on before, but he had been pleading with his mothers to get one for a while now, so he was still ecstatic about it.

The parents then began re-applying sunscreen on their children before they could go back into the pool, getting whines and "come on, Mom!"s in return. Ann was helping Luca apply sunscreen while his mothers, Larie and her parents began cleaning up the torn wrapping paper and ribbon when she suddenly gasped and covered her mouth, "Ann?" he called. His cousin leapt out of her chair and began dashing around the pool back towards the house, one hand over her mouth and the other cradling her swollen belly.

"Ann!" Larie had cried as he dashed over while she collapsed to her knees and barfed on the edge of the pool, her vomit sliding into the pool and making the water change color due to the chemicals added to the water to clean it.

Once she finished throwing up and finished her coughing fit, she looked down at the mess and suddenly looked horrified at what she had just done. Larie helped her back up onto her feet and inspected her for damage while her eyes were still glued to the now tainted pool.

Miranda grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the couple while Fiona helped Larie carefully place Ann down on the chair and handed her a napkin to wipe her face with. Her parents racing over to them, obviously worried. "I'm so sorry…" she murmured over and over again to her aunts as tears began slipping down her cheeks. Luca stood, unsure of what just happened, one minute Ann was fine, the next, she was barfing into the pool!

He shook off the shock and carefully walked over to the group and blurted out, "Are you okay, Ann?"

She nodded, obviously embarrassed as she wiped a few tears off of her cheeks with her hands, "Yes, I'm fine, Luca, thank you for asking." She then looked up at him, "I am _so_ sorry about all of this…" she repeated sadly. Larie knelt down and clasped her hands tightly, "Muffin, it was an accident."

"Exactly. You're pregnant, pregnant women get sick, it happens." Miranda cooed.

"So you didn't make it to the bathroom, stuff happens, Ann, you shouldn't be upset about it." Fiona said in a soft tone.

"It'll be fine, Sweetheart." Her mother assured her.

"Yes, it's not the end of the world." Her father agreed.

"No, but it may as well be the end of Luca's party!" Ann cried.

Luca felt as if he had been slapped in the face, he hadn't even thought about it like that. He quickly glanced back at the pool, the water was now no longer blue, but an odd yellowish green that, along with the chunks of half digested food Ann threw up, made it seem as if it was a pool of vomit.

Yuck!

There would be no way he and his friends could play in there again until it had been cleaned and there was no way they could clean it before his friends were supposed to leave. He could already hear the other parents begin rounding up their children for the impending ride home.

He didn't want his party to be over, but he didn't want his friends to just stand there and watch his cousin sob for the next hour and a half! He felt conflicted as his mothers went over to discuss possible ways to remedy the situation with the other parents. Luca then looked at Ann and Larie, hoping maybe they had an answer, Ann looked mortified, guilty and upset, but Larie... Larie looked pensive as he took in his surroundings, muttering to himself. He then smiled and looked at him, "Luca, I'm gonna need a funnel, water balloons and any water guns you have lying around." Luca nodded and raced into the house, unsure what Larie needed the items for, while Larie went about grabbing a few chairs and towels.

Soon, the kids were racing through the backyard, playing capture the flag. Larie had made bases for the kids to defend and used his shirt and Ann's sun hat as the flags. The kids were wielding water guns and water balloons, laughing when they'd soak someone and make them have to go back to their base and try again, occasionally holding up their free hand while dashing back to the hose and refilling their guns and picking up more water balloons that the parents helped crank out once they saw what Larie was doing.

After the party, Luca and his moms thanked their guests and passed out party saviors to the other children. Uncle Lennard, Aunt Carla, Ann and Larie helped clean up before heading home, receiving thanks from Miranda and Fiona for the help as well as for coming while Ann apologized again for what happened.

Luca looked at the adults, trying to think of a way to make Ann feel better about the whole thing, until finally, he walked over and gently patted her belly and said, "Sorry, Mildred or Allbert with two Ls, next year I'll make sure there is something you like to eat here, okay?"

He smiled when he felt something inside her belly push against his hands, "I felt the baby kick!" he cried, excited. The adults chuckled as he jumped up and down, proud of himself. Everyone exchanged hugs and wished each other a good night before his relatives climbed into their cars and drove home.

.

End of flashback

.

"Do you think she's going to barf again this year?" one of his friends asked him.

"Ew!" another friend cried, "Gross!"

"No, Ann had Allbert with two Ls this winter, so she doesn't get sick anymore." Luca told them. The announcement was met with groans and squeals, groans from the boys who wanted to see someone puke and squeals from the girls who were eager to meet the baby in person.

"Luca!" Miranda called. "Ann, Larie and Allbert are here!" Fiona shouted.

Luca scrambled out of the pool, his friends swimming to the edges of the pool to watch what would happen next. He ran up to his cousin and her family with a huge smile on his face.

Larie wore the same clothes as last year, holding another perfectly wrapped gift under one arm and a diaper bag over the other shoulder, while Ann wore a dark purple bikini, a sun hat, sandals and a long swim skirt and held little Allbert her arms.

Allbert wore a special swim trunk diaper with duckies on it, a little shirt with a matching duckie on it, water wings, a wide brimmed sun hat, water shoes and he had thick white sunscreen slathered on his cheeks. Luca smiled at the tyke, "Hi, Allbert." He said to the baby, "Glad you could make it! You wanna go swimming?"

The infant tilted his head and sucked on his fingers at the question, Ann then bounced her baby gently in her arms and asked, in a soft voice, "Would you like to swim with Mommy, Daddy and Luca?" Allbert squealed with delight as his mom bounced him up and down.

"That means yes." Larie informed the nine year old as he and Ann quickly dropped off the baby bag and the present with Luca's mothers and Ann's parents, letting them quickly fawn over the infant before Larie grabbed Luca under his arms, walked to the edge of the deep end of the pool and swung him into the pool before jumping in after him. Meanwhile, Ann was carefully descending down the steps with her son cradled in her arms. When she was finally in the shallow end, she lowered her son in slowly, to have him adjust to the water temperature.

Once Allbert's lower half was in the water, the baby began slapping his hands against the water happily, the little girls taking this as their cue to swarm the little one and giggle about how cute he was and play peek-a-boo by ducking under the water and popping back up, making the baby squeal with delight.

Larie played with Luca and the boys for a while until Ann called for him and held up Allbert who reached for his daddy with a smile on his face. Larie swam over and scooped the tyke up into his arms and made a fart noise on his belly with his mouth, making all the kids laugh along with Allbert…

Then they heard another fart noise, only this time, coming from Allbert, who began to cry as his swim diaper began to leak into the pool.

"Oh dear!" Ann cried as she and Larie, with Allbert and Luca in tow, quickly fled the water, along with all the children who cried out, "EW! DOODY!" Larie fled towards the house, scooping up the diaper bag with one hand while holding his sobbing son in the other and his wife right behind him.

After Allbert's diaper had been changed and the tyke had been cleaned up and calmed down, the young family returned back to the party mortified, guilty and eager to apologize…

Only to see the kids playing with water guns and water balloons again in another rousing game of capture the flag. Luca spotted them and ran over to them, "Mom said the food will be ready in a minute, and that if you'd like, Mom has an apron you can borrow so Ann can feed Allbert outside without anyone seeing anything… whatever_ that_ means."

The two young parents looked at the birthday boy, then towards his giggling guests, then back, stunned.

"How…?" Larie murmured.

"We figured this year, we should have a back-up plan." Fiona explained with a chuckle.

"It was Luca's idea. He also asked if we could have a kiddie pool set up for the kids to refill their water guns that Allbert can splash around in too." Miranda elaborated, then indicated her waving siblings-in-laws who had their feet soaking in the little inflatable pool. "We didn't have one before, but Carla and Lennard were happy to pick one up for us on their way here." She then looked apologetically at the young family, "Sorry we didn't tell you about it sooner, but it was taking a while to inflate and it completely slipped our mind once you guys got here... Maybe if we had told you about it sooner, we could have avoided having to fall back to this plan, but, we learned our lesson and next year we'll have the kiddy pool set up for Allbert to splash around in while the older kids play in the big pool and with water guns and water balloons."

Luca then tugged on Ann's skirt, "Hey Ann, Aunt Carla said Allbert probably can't have hot dogs or hamburgers yet, but can Allbert still have some cake?" he asked eagerly as he watched the two young parents ponder his question.

"Well, considering that it's probably soft enough that he can eat it, even without teeth, perhaps he can have just a little bit after his milk, Luca," Ann said.

"Why only a little bit?" Luca asked.

"All here has only started eating solid food last week, so he's not used to it yet." Larie informed him as he bounced his son in his arms, making the tyke smile as he clung to his father.

Luca relaxed, "oh, okay then…" Ann and Larie then watched as he rocked back and forth on his toes and heels before finally asking, "Can I hold him?"

Ann and Larie chuckled and nodded before carefully placing their son into the boy's arms, Luca carried Allbert towards the food and placed him onto a high chair near his grandparents, "Alright Allbert," he said, "When we're all done eating lunch, I'll get you a piece of cake, okay?" Allbert stuck his fingers into his mouth and looked at Luca, unsure what to make of the boy's promise.

"Why are you so fixated on giving him cake, Luca?" Ann asked as she and Larie said on either side of their baby. Luca smiled and shrugged as he explained that, "Well, I promised him last year that I'd have something he'd like to eat and, well, who doesn't like cake?"


	6. Hanky Panky 2 ( Rick&Ralph)

Kimberly Van Bartonschmeer smiled as she picked up four items from her desk and carefully placed three of them into the left side pocket of her knapsack before tying a small, handmade stuffed yellow cat onto the zipper of her bag.

"Kim!" her dad called from downstairs, "Calvin! Noah! Your friends are down here waiting for you!"

"Coming!" Kim called down, slipping one arm through her backpack strap and dashing out of her door, smiling vibrantly as she passed the calendar in her bedroom, cute kittens curled up on a few pink and red heart shaped cushions over the word 'February', red 'X's over the first thirteen days on the calendar, the words 'Mia and Tia's B-day!' inside of a red circle on the fourteenth.

.

Lolzwaitwhat presents:

HANKY PANKY HULLABALOO 2:

REVENGE OF THE MOUNTAIN SPRITES!

…

And apologizes that she hasn't even finished the first Hanky Panky before writing this.

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Kim skipped down the stairs, her brothers right behind her as they hopped down the last step. She'd had a hard time thinking of what she should get her best friends for their birthday. They loved fashion and singing and dancing and were always so good to her. Last year, on her birthday, they gave her a beautiful dress that they had made for her and made her their mother's special chocolate cake. Considering that they were still only in elementary school, that was pretty impressive.

Kim's sewing skills were not as good as Mia's nor were her designs as good as Tia's, but she managed to put together two pink keychain cat plushies for their birthday, each one with one of her best friend's first initial on the chest. And, while it wasn't as grand as the gifts they had given her, she had worked on them for about a month, pricking her fingers like crazy in the process and needing to cover her hands with band-aids, but it would be worth it to see the expressions on her friends' faces when she gave them to them. She couldn't wait!

The Van Bartonschmeer Triplets ran to the kitchen to grab the store bought valentines and candies that they had filled out the night before, shove them into their bags, give their parents a kiss good bye, then grabbed some toast, threw their coats on and ran outside where Mia, Tia, Rick Larry, Terry, Ralph, Penny and Jasmine were waiting for them, a few snowflakes fluttering slowly to the ground and onto the freshly shoved driveway and the few inches of snow that hid the dying grass from view.

"Morning everyone!" Kim said cheerfully as they joined them on the curb before they all began walking to Peach Creek Elementary together, getting similar replies in half awake voices.

"Morning!" her best friends replied as they gave her a hug, as they did every morning, "Happy Birthday!" She said, reaching into the side pocket, only for Tia to stop her, "Not now!" she said.

"Yeah, you have to wait until the party tonight!" Mia reminded her.

"Oh yeah!" Kim said, then rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Sorry, I was so excited that I almost forgot!" Every year for the twins birthday, Kim was invited to a birthday party/sleepover at Mia and Tia's house, the three of them would spent the whole night singing, dancing, playing dress up, eating snacks, watching movies, opening gifts, accepting flowers and having a good time in their basement.

"This is going to suck." Calvin groaned. Rick glanced at his friend, confused by his statement, "Why would you say that, Calvin?"

"Cause Valentine's day is for girls!" Noah replied.

"Actually, Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of an early martyr Saint named Valentinus." Larry corrected, "And while the popular account of his deeds _do_ have to do with marriage and claim that he gave a young woman a card signed 'your Valentine' before his execution…"

"The day wasn't really associated with romance until the High Middle Ages." Terry finished for his brother, "And so what if it is more feminine holiday? At least we get to eat candy in class without getting into trouble." The other first graders in the group nodded eagerly in agreement, their excitement visible as they began bouncing on their toes for the class valentine exchange, where the whole class would hand each person a valentine (so no one felt left out) and a small piece of candy in the afternoon, and the big party that was held for all of the students in the gym where they would enjoy cookies and fruit punch, dance and make crafts and then go home on serious sugar highs that their after school caretakers and/or parents would have to endure instead of the teachers and school officials.

"I agree, the festivities shall allow us to share tasty treats and disrupt the order that is usually forced upon us in the classroom!" Ralph cried, then licked his lips, as if already tasting the sweets that would come with the class valentine swap this afternoon. Calvin and Noah looked at Rick, wondering why the only part of his mother's speech that he picked up on was her tendency to speak in third person while his younger brother spoke as if he came straight out of that old country that their mother would often go on about… but then again, his mother's accent (if you could call it that) could have been made worse by having the genius Kanker twins as best friends (shoving big long words down the kid's throat) for all they knew, but they kept their mouths shut, knowing better than to insult a Kanker.

Penny smiled vibrantly as she held Roxy up in the air, the rock declaring that, "PENNY AND I ARE GONNA EAT CHOCOLATE UNTIL WE BARF!"

"Right on, sister!" Jasmine agreed, pumping her fists in the air, "SUGAR HIGH! SUGAR HIGH!" The other six year olds dashed up ahead, their fists in the air as they chanted "SUGAR HIGH!" (With Ralph adding a 'yes?' at the end of every other one.) over and over again, leaving the third graders to wait a beat before shrugging and racing after them, shouting, "SUGAR HIGH! SUGAR HIGH!" and laughing along with them all the way to school. Then all of them composed themselves and walked in, as if they hadn't been chanting about eating too many sweets before entering the building.

Rick stopped for a moment in the front hall, pushing his cowboy hat up on his head, turning behind them and sniffing the air, cautious, making his party stop a few feet away and turn to him, concerned as to why he had stopped so suddenly, not seeing his suspicious expression due to his hat blocking his face from their view.

"Dude!" Noah cried, "What are you doing?"

"Yeah, come on, man!" Calvin agreed, "We're gonna be late!"

Rick glared behind him for a moment before turning around and calling back, "Coming!" as he ran over and joined his friends, explaining that, "Rick had a feeling that he forgot something, he was worried that it might be his class valentines, but luckily he remembered that Mama put them in a large paper sack that Rick slipped into his rucksack this morning."

"You still have that feeling?" Kim asked, Rick shrugged, as if unsure.

"Maybe you forgot your lunch again?" Tia suggested.

He paused and looked through his knapsack, while the others recalled that the last time he forgot his lunch, which was last year. He had left it on his family's kitchen counter all day (his parents and grandparents were busy with the farm and the children they watched during the day) leaving him to go hungry with only bits and pieces of his friend's lunches to help him survive the rest of the day and made his home reek of fish until the end of the next day, causing people to make fun of him and call him 'fish boy' until the smell wore off. "Unfortunately, it seems that the Son of a Cowpoke must have left it at home, Rick will go to the front office and call home to see if anyone can bring it to him. Thank you for reminding Rick about his lunch, Tia."

"No problem." Tia purred, obviously pleased with herself.

"At least you know and can have someone bring it to you so no one will make fun of you for smelling like fish again." Mia replied.

"Yeah, dude, that had to suck." Kim agreed.

Rick shrugged, "Rick's Papa explained to him long ago that when things like that happen, it's best to let it go, that nothing good will come if Rick gets angry and upset about it."

The six of them made it into the school before the warning bell, the younger members of their party long since fled into their classrooms, and Mia, Tia, Calvin and Noah waved to Rick as they walked past the front office and the boys told him that they'd explain to the teacher what had happened just in case they were late. Kim stopped a few feet from the Son of a Cowpoke, catching her friends and brothers by surprise.

"Come on, Kim!" Mia called.

"I'll be there in a sec, I just have to go to the bathroom!" she said, looking a little embarrassed. Her brothers shrugged and resumed walking towards their classroom while Mia and Tia asked if she wanted them to come with her, she thanked them and said that she just really had to go and that she'd see them in class, they nodded and raced towards the classroom so they wouldn't be late and get into trouble, which they hardly got into, but unfortunately, their older brother had a bit of a reputation with the staff of Peach Creek Elementary and they were much stricter with Mia and Tia when they actually got into trouble as a result. (one of the few times that having Andy as an older brother gave them a disadvantage)

Kim waited until they had vanished down the hall before smiling at Rick, who was confused, "Rick thought you needed to go to the bathroom?"

She looked at him sheepishly, "I kinda lied. I just wanted to thank you for all the help you gave me when I was making Mia and Tia's birthday presents."

"Rick doesn't think he did much to help you, but you're welcome. How did they turn out?" he asked. She smiled and yanked the zipper on the side of her bag and revealed the two key chains, "Great!" she cheerfully replied, then reached back in and pulled the third item out of the side pocket and placed it into his hand, "Here, I made this one for you!" she said, "Just a little thank you for giving me that wool when I ran out of cotton stuffing and the craft store was closed. As soon as I used it, the little guys actually turned out looking much better than they had with the stuffing!"

Rick looked down into his palm and was surprised to see that his keychain was of a small cow with a little misshapen cowboy hat, "I made you a cow one since, well, you keep saying that you're the son of a cowpoke." She explained with a smile, "And what's more awesome than a cow in a cowboy hat?" Rick's cheeks felt as if someone had started a fire inside of them as he looked up at her and said, "You didn't have to…"

"I know." She said, looking ecstatic that he seemed to like it, "I wanted to! You're always helping me out and you're really good to my brothers, it seemed like the least I could do, and it was really fun! I could show you how to make one if you want…" another bell cut her off and made them both jump a bit in surprise as the principal's booming voice came over the intercom, "All students, please stand for the pledge of allegiance…"

Kim gave him an apologetic look as she turned on her heel and dashed towards the classroom, "Jeez! I'm gonna be late! See you in class!" she then gave him one last smile before turning around and running around the corner.

Rick's face was still burning as he looked at the keychain, his heart pounding wildly in his chest and a small, warm smile on his face. He shook his head as he slipped the keychain into his pocket, as if to shake himself free of something but seeming unable to fully do so, then glanced left and right before dashing into the bathroom and opening his backpack, where is lunch bag was sitting, and pulled one of the extra emergency lemons his mother had specifically prepared for today out of it. He looked at it reluctantly before he held it above his head, gulped loudly and crushed it in his hands, sending lemon juice and searing pain into his eyes. He bit back a howl of pain and blinked a few times before peeking his head out of the bathroom door and spotting a human looking creature with feathered wings on it's back, a bow in it's hands and a quiver full of arrows glancing back and forth for a victim.

"_Rick knew he smelled the inky scent of mountain sprites_…" he snarled.

.

.

.

Ralph, Larry, Terry, Penny, Jasmine and Roxy bounced in their seats as they decorated small cardboard boxes with their names on them that would be used for the valentine exchange later on in the day. The classroom was full of laughter and excited chatter, especially between the girls. Penny, Jasmine and Roxy, who seemed as if they stayed out of the other girl's first grade gossip, were happily chattering on with their female classmates while swapping different shades of glitter glue.

Not that the boys paid much attention to what they were talking about when all of the girls had decided to talk in the back of the classroom halfway through decorating, they had other things to discuss as the girls chattered away.

The twins looked to either side before addressing their blue haired friend between them.

"Did you make one for her?" Terry whispered, indicating a red heart he had cut out of construction paper with the word 'Valentine' written on it. Ralph jumped at the question, his face flushed as he shook his head wildly, "I don't have to, as I have picked out a nice one from the pack Mama picked out and I whipped up her up a special treat from the Old Country to place in her box of Valentines." He said confidently, his chest puffed up with pride. He'd had to evade his Mama and Nana when he copied down the recipe and had to remake it several times whenever they entered the kitchen and he had to mess it up by adding a bunch of random ingredients to make it seem as if he was making something else and getting stuck with a blob of food that he'd sneak into the pigs' trough, knowing if his mother found it, she would blame it on Winifred. Finally, his Papa finally, to his relief, caught him dumping a failed serving into the pig's pen and he and Nano helped get the women out of the house so he could make it correctly by suggesting that they invite his Papa's parents over for a feast full of traditional food from the old country that night. His Papa and, younger sister and older brother accompanied them to the store while Nano stayed behind and talked him through it.

"… you sure you don't want to try?" Larry asked, indicating the squealing girls in the back. Ralph paused, considering the option, after all, while a girl from the old country might be charmed by his edible gift, it was possible that the object of his affections wouldn't understand the dish's meaning. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could answer his black haired friends, the classroom door opened and, to his surprise, his brother peeked his head from the doorway, hiding his eyes with the brim of his hat, "Excuse Rick, but he needs to borrow Ralph for a moment." The teacher nodded and told Ralph he could speak with his brother, after all, Rick was one of the most well behaved students in school, surely he wouldn't interrupt class without a good reason!

Ralph followed his older brother out into the hallway, concerned, since Rick was not the type of person who would skip class without a good reason or pull him out of class without a good reason nor was he the kind who hid his face without a good reason.

Rick lifted the brim of his hat, revealing his pink, pained eyes, "_The mountain sprites have descended into our mists_!" Rick hissed as he dropped a lemon into his brother's hands, his eyes darting back and forth, as if he feared being overheard. Ralph's eyes widened in horror as he stared at the yellow citrus fruit that sat in his palms, it felt as if the joy of possibly getting his feelings across to his crush had just been crushed under a heavy weight of despair.

Their mother had told them tales of the chaos and heartbreak the pesky mountain imps caused, and would always place an emergency lemon in their lunches, placing five in there on Valentine's Day, "In case you catch the scent of those winged weasels!" she had growled, "And so you can hunt them down and crush them before they infect those around you with their curse, yes?"

"You have spotted one?" Ralph asked his brother, who bent his head in shame, "Rick believes he might have been infected by it's cursed arrows…"

Ralph put a determined expression on his face as he rose the lemon over his head and squeezed it over his eyes with no hesitation, surprising his brother, since it obviously hurt, but other than biting his lip, Ralph showed no signs of pain as he circled his older brother, his eyes scanning him for signs of an arrow. After a moment, he then lifted the hat on his brother's head, glanced at the messy mop of black hat hair, then plopped the hat back where it belonged, "I see no arrow, Rick." He reported, confused, "Are you certain you saw the horrid creature and are not just infatuated with a member of the opposite sex?"

"No!" he cried, his face pink.

"… Same sex?"

"NO!" he blurted, then stopped himself and took a deep breath before whispering that, "First of all, Rick is suddenly having feelings for a _girl_! And second of all, _Rick saw it with his own two eyes!_" he stopped, spotting the creature in question behind his brother and quickly turned his head to see it, making Ralph's eyes widen even more when the creature looked at them, a bit uncertain if they were looking at him or not, "See?" Rick growled, "_They are among us_."

The winged menace realized they spotted them as they leapt toward it, giving it no other option other than to shoot down the hall as the bell rang for the next course of the day, teachers beginning to lead children to their next classroom and soon Rick and Ralph lost sight of it in the crowd.

"We must inform the others!" Ralph declared, only for his brother to clamp his hand over his mouth, "_We_ _cannot_!" Rick whispered, "If word got out about the pest, it would create panic and make it more difficult for us to crush it while making it easier for the imp to strike! We must act as if nothing is wrong and hunt it in secret!" He then grasped his brother's shoulders, "Do you understand Rick, Ralph? You must tell _no one_." Ralph nodded and gave his elder brother an Urban Ranger's salute, "Ranger's Honor!"

Rick looked a bit relieved as he let go of his brother's arms and did the Urban Rangers salute as well, "Ranger's honor" he said in a soft tone, "Rick will go to his class now." He said calmly, his younger brother nodded in understanding as they separated, Ralph going back towards the classroom, "Ralph!" he heard his brother hiss, "Remember! Tell _no one_!" Ralph nodded as he watched his older brother's hat head towards the third grade classrooms and went back inside the first grade classroom and took his seat between Larry and Terry.

"Is everything alright, Ralph?" Larry asked.

"Yes, everything is fine!" he replied in a voice too chipper and high-pitched to be believable, "The Son of a Cowpoke is peachy, yes?"

"Well, if we're judging simply by the pigment of the whites of your eyes, or bright pinks of your eyes, I should say, I think it's safe to say '_no_, the Son of a Cowpoke is _not_ alright.'" Terry replied coolly as he and his twin leaned closer to their blue haired friend and commanded him to, "_**Talk**_."

Ralph ducked his head down, "I cannot! For I have given Rick a Ranger's honor guarantee, and as you two well know, that cannot be broken!"

The twins were silent for a moment before Terry asked, "What did you give a Ranger's honor to _do_ exactly?"

"_**I cannot tell**_! That is what one does when an Urban Ranger gives his Honor, yes?" he hissed back, annoyed that he had been asked what he wasn't supposed to tell right after he just explained his circumstances _about why he could not tell them_!

Larry grabbed a lumpy, pink construction paper heart that had not been nice enough looking to put on someone's box and a pencil and slid it in front of Ralph, "did he say anything about writing it down?" he asked in a conspiratorial tone as impish gap-toothed grins crawled up the twins' cheeks.

Ralph was taken aback for a moment before recalling his brother's exact words, "No." he replied with a smile, a little relieved that he could confide in someone other than his older brother about this as he picked up the pencil, "Rick did _not_ mention anything about writing anything down."

.

.

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Rick fidgeted with his hat, making sure that the rim hid his burning eyes from everyone else. He hated just sitting there when there was a devious creature out there, shooting crazy love arrows and causing trouble, but what could he do? If he told his friends what was happening, they'd think he was crazy… and Kim might think he was too… his stomach felt as if it was being tied into knots at the thought, he bit his lip as he bitterly wondered how he could be in more pain at the thought of embarrassing himself in front of a girl than he did when he poured _lemon juice into his eyes_.

Suddenly a folded sheet of paper with a rainbow border was placed on the bottom left corner of his desk by Noah, who made sure to be silent as possible while he delivered it to him, Rick looked at the paper, stunned.

Now, the act of passing notes wasn't uncommon between the Son of a Cowpoke and the two male triplets, but passing notes on _rainbow paper_ was _not normal at all_. Rick gave him a funny look and whispered, "Rick thought your sister was the only triplet with rainbow paper." Noah jerked his head back as if appalled that Rick would ever _think_ he would have such a thing, his brother chuckling as Rick indicated the rainbow border of the paper with his finger, silently explaining why he would think that. Calvin started to laugh a little harder and covered his mouth with both hands to stifle the sound as his brother flushed, embarrassed, and thumbed behind him, where his sister sat between the two Kanker sisters and smiled sweetly at them and gave a tiny wave, confirming that she had sent the note to him and not her brother.

Rick glanced up at the teacher, who was writing on the blackboard with his back to the class as he was going on and on about what Larry and Terry Kanker had told them this morning (only the Kankers' version was more informative and shorter), so, after making sure the coast was clear, Rick pulled his hat down further on his head and tilted it so it would hide his face as he slipped the note in his lap and unfolded it, trying not to blush as he, for the first time, admired her handwriting, which was much neater than his own and it seemed that she was a better speller than the other two triplets' and he had a hard time not turning bright red when he noticed that she had little hearts over the 'I's that replaced the dots that normally sat there. He then pinched himself, snapping him out of his daze so he could read the note and reply without getting caught by the teacher.

'What I was trying to ask is if you wanted me to show you how I made those little stuffed animals. Calvin and Noah said that you wont but I figured that since you have a little sister now you and Ralph might want to make her a stuffed animal or something. Cause I could show you when ever! Just let me know when, okay? ~Kim'

Rick was struggling to compose himself as he reread the note, his face bright red as he picked up his pencil and wrote his reply.

"Told ya he wouldn't!" Calvin murmured to his sister, pointing to his friend's red face, Mia scowled and swatted at him from her seat, making him flinch as she hissed back, "He could just be embarrassed because he's sitting next to someone whose fly is open!"

Calvin flushed and glanced down at his pants, only to see that the zipper, was in fact, up, finally realizing that Mia couldn't have known if his fly was down from where she was sitting and that he should have known it was a bluff. He turned around and scowled at Mia, who smiled triumphantly, her blue tooth gleaming as she whispered, "Made you look!" and made her sister and his brother chuckle. Kim didn't seemed amused by her friends' tactic, but then again, she also probably hadn't like how her brother reacted to the thought of a boy having rainbow paper, so she was neutral in their disagreement right now. Which was rare, since she'd often try to have both of them apologize and work it out… but they rarely ever did that, her friends and her brothers were both too stubborn to submit that they were wrong while the other party was right and often left Rick and Kim separating them until the four of them could realize just how stupid their disagreement was and let it go.

Rick refolded the paper and offered the note to Noah to pass back to his sister, Noah took it with a flushed face as he slipped his hand under his sister's desk so she could take it from him without being caught.

She was about to open it when the teacher suddenly called out, "Kim? Are you paying any attention?" Making her drop the note and it bouncing onto the floor and settling under Tia's desk.

"Uh, yeah, of course!" she said nervously, glancing over at Tia, silently asking for help. The teacher narrowed his eyes at her while Tia carefully placed her foot over the note, hiding it from view as he walked in front of Kim's desk, "Then can you tell me the name of the Saint that Valentine's day is named after?"

Kim perked up and said, "Totally, dude, it's named after Saint Valentinus!" The teacher frowned, as if disappointed that he hadn't caught her messing around and could call her out on it then turned around and walked back to the board and continued the lesson, Tia picking up the note off the floor and the three girls glancing over at the note together, the Kanker twins barely holding back giggles with their fingers, making Rick's stomach feel like it was getting tied up in knots again and wishing that Kim had been the only one who had seen his reply.

After the bell rang, Noah turned to Tia with a smug grin on his face and asked, "So, guess you three can make teddy bears all by yourselves then, huh?"

Tia smiled, the blue tooth practically sparkling in her mouth as she coolly replied, "Yeah I guess so, because apparently his little sister's more of a fan of sheep than bears." The girls got up from their chairs and walked out of the room, Kim smiling and telling Rick that, "We'll talk about it more at lunch!" as they passed his seat on the way to their next class.

Noah and Calvin turned to their farming friend, their jaws hanging down from their faces in disbelief, "What?" Rick said as he pushed the rim of his hat so his friends could see his eyes, which were back to normal and his face clear of the color red (except for a little pink in his cheeks) and a smile on his face as he shrugged, "Sheep are soft, fluffy, and something Connie will have to work with when she gets older." When he saw that his friends were still looking at him as if he had a second head, Rick then added, "That, and if Rick came home with a bear of any kind to give to his baby sister, his Mama would tan his hide with a wet noodle."

.

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Ralph, Larry and Terry acted suspiciously during lunch and their female friends didn't like it. They were whispering amongst themselves, fiddling with a pair of goggles and a lemon they had pulled out of Ralph's lunchbox and they jumped whenever they tried to get them involved in their conversation only to give the briefest excuse they could manage and went back to being all secretive.

But the thing that really revealed that something was up was when they tried to slip out of lunch early without asking if they wanted to come as well, like they usually would.

"Are you three leaving?" Roxy asked as they attempted to slink away from the table while the girls had their backs to them and said hi to Mia, Tia and Kim, making them jump as Penny and Jasmine turned to face them, challenging them to try to lie to their faces.

"We were going to check the library to find reference books for a project." Terry explained with ease.

"Yes, we wouldn't want to get grounded for blowing something up in the garage again when all we had to do was double check something." Larry confirmed with confidence.

Their reasons seemed legit, and it wasn't as if they'd never left lunch early to go to the library before, but then again, those two were very skilled with words, they often used half truths to get out of trouble, keeping out specific information that incriminated them and gave out the minimal facts that multiple people would be able to confirm, their parents and older brother were the only people who either could see through it or maybe the twins just couldn't lie very well to them, the girls would never know, but then again, they didn't have to rely solely on the twins' tale, oh no. Not when they had _Ralph_.

Ralph was a horrible liar, he'd always had been, but considering his honest and naive personality and the fact that he didn't lie very often, it made sense.

It also made it easy for the girls to learn what was actually going on here.

"Okay then, why is Ralph going with you?" Jasmine asked.

"I have to use the restroom, yes?" Ralph said quickly, giving them a sheepish smile before saying, "Good bye." And the three boys fleeing through the cafeteria doors before the girls could grab them and force them to talk.

Jasmine and Penny looked at each other, annoyed (Roxy's face was angled so it looked as if she was staring at Jasmine too), "I dunno about you two, but I want some answers." Jasmine growled.

"Same here." Roxy replied, sounding irritated as Penny nodded sharply in agreement. The three then quickly packed up what was left of their lunches and ran after their friends, who were already in front of the library and were hunched over the custodian's bucket, their lunch boxes clutched in one hand, while their other hands were submerged in the bucket of dirty water, all three of them wore the goggles they had seen in the cafeteria on their faces.

"HEY!" Jasmine cried, making them all wince and turn to see their angry friend's faces. "WE WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU THREE ARE UP TO!"

The boys opened their mouths to reply, only for the color to drain from their faces as they looked at a spot above a poster for the party later on today, Ralph then charged towards them, "LOOK OUT!" he cried as he rammed into them and knocked them backwards away from where they had been standing, pushing their backs against the cafeteria doors.

Jasmine grabbed him by the collar, outraged, her teeth pointed, her voice sharp and her face as red as hot coals, "_You __**better**__ have a good reason for that._" She snarled. Penny began to shake as she pointed to where they had just been standing, her eyes wide with fear. Jasmine followed her friend's finger only to see several small arrows that had apparently cracked through the thick tiles of the floor.

"Where did those come from?" Roxy asked, a little panic in her voice as Penny pulled her close to her chest. Ralph pulled his goggles off, aimed it for the spot of wall he, Larry and Terry had seemed so worried about and held it up for the three of them to see a little human like creature with a bow and quiver of arrows scowl as he aimed the arrows right at them… only for it to quickly dodge several shots of dirty water that Larry and Terry shot out of small water pistols that they had pulled out of the bucket and flew off, looking irritated and shouting rhyming insults at them as it left.

"And what was that thing?!" Jasmine cried as Ralph put his goggles back on and yanked them to their feet and Larry and Terry shoved goggles and filled water pistols into their hands, "Ralph gave an Urban Ranger's Honor promise not to tell…" Larry explained.

"So we'll tell you while we hunt that thing down." Terry said, the devious gap-toothed grins on the twins faces quickly spreading to the rest of the group as the girls quickly placed the goggles on (Penny slipping a pair on Roxy) and gripped the water guns with impish gleams in their eyes.

"Let's get 'um." Jasmine purred before the five of them (plus Roxy) chased after the tiny flying archer.

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Calvin and Noah stared Rick down from across the table, their eyes narrowed as they munched on their lunches. Rick took another bite from the drumstick his mother had put in his lunch (which he told them that his Papa had dropped off for him earlier after he called home), chewed, swallowed and sighed, "For the _last_ _time_, Rick _agreed_ to make a toy for his little sister, he does not see why you two are acting like this about it."

"Because it's sewing and that's lame!" Calvin said plainly.

"Yeah, and it's not like you ever made a toy for _Ralph_ when _he_ was a baby." Noah pointed out.

"Rick was _two_ when Ralph was born." Rick said flatly, "He couldn't have made a toy for him even if he wanted to." His friends winced in the face of his logic, but then continued to glare at him, "What's wrong with Rick making a toy for his sister? It's almost as if you two are jealous that Rick would not make you stuffed toys…" Rick paused, snickering a bit at the thought and allowing his statement to sink in with them before he opened his mouth.

"_**No.**_" they replied in unison, looking horrified at what might happen if anyone heard him say that again, but then again, they were very conscious of their reputations with their classmates and didn't want to be seen as uncool or dorks, so they were very careful about these sorts of things.

"Then why are you both so against this?" Rick asked, exasperated.

"Probably because they're afraid you'll ditch them for us?" Tia teased, making them jump in surprise that the girls were right behind them during their conversation.

"Or maybe they're afraid that if they ask him to make them plushies that he'll think they're lame!" Mia suggested. The two male triplets scowled at the twin girls and the four seemed ready for a fight, only for Kim to pipe up, "So, Rick, I heard that little Connie has been playing with Larry and Terry's newest little sister, Emma, is that true?"

Rick felt his cheeks warm up, not noticing that Mia and Tia's eyes widened in comprehension at the sight of his red cheeks as he nodded, "Yes, they also play with Jasmine's little sister, Stella. The three of them play together a lot…" he paused then said, "Maybe while you show Rick how to make a little sheep for Connie, you could show Jasmine and Mildred how to make something for their sisters too."

Kim, Mia and Tia brightened, "That's a great idea, Rick!" Kim cried.

"We can ask Mildred on the way home…" Mia said.

"But we can ask Jasmine now, I mean, we just passed them…" Tia began as she pointed towards Ralph's table, only to see the boys jump away from the table and run out of the cafeteria, the girls dashing after them, looking irritated.

"What's all that about?" Noah asked.

"Maybe the girls were annoyed that they weren't as into the romance of today as they are?" Mia suggested, "I mean, when we were in first grade, all we talked about on Valentine's Day was who to give homemade Valentines to..."

"Who did you give those to?" Rick asked, not trying to seem too eager.

"Our grandpas, dads and brothers." Kim replied, "But there were a couple girls who gave homemade valentines to boys in the class."

"Yeah, it made us really mad that you three weren't paying attention to us while we were trying to get your opinions about the cards we were making." Tia reminded them.

"Well, whatever it is," Calvin said, ignoring Tia, "they'll probably end up outside the Principal's office for it. _Again_."

Rick felt his blood turn to ice as he spotted a lemon left on the table. _No. He wouldn't…!_ This was _bad_, he pushed up from the table, cleaning up the remains of his lunch, throwing away his trash and calling back to his friends, "Rick has a bad feeling about this, he's going to check on Ralph and his friends!"

Before his friends could reply, he had already booked it out of the cafeteria and watched the five kids run down the corridor with impish grins that made his stomach sink as he ran to join them, "RALPH!" he shouted, making the five kids (and Roxy) skid to a stop and turn to him, their expressions all one that practically screamed 'BUSTED!'

The kids then turned for a moment, horrified.

"He escaped into the vents." Terry whispered, obviously unnerved.

"This is bad…" Larry agreed, biting his lip, a small bit of his lip popping out from his gap in his two front teeth.

"Surprised his big fat butt even fit through the grate." Jasmine murmured, Penny letting out a snort of laughter while she and Roxy nodded in agreement.

"This is not a laughing matter!" Rick snapped, making all five of them wince, "The Mountain Sprite can now get to any part of the building and attack everyone!"

"Mountain Sprite?" Roxy echoed, "Is that what that thing is?"

Rick glared at his younger brother, who cried out, "I DID _NOT_ SAY ANYTHING!"

"Technically…" Terry added, making the cowboy hat wearing boy glare at him and his twin, who looked up at him guiltily and said, "We had him write it down so he wouldn't break his promise to you…"

"We don't really know what's happening." Jasmine clarified, while Penny nodded in agreement while Jasmine went on to say that "We kinda just got shot at and wanted payback."

Rick cradled his head in his hands with a groan, then said, "Ralph, you may explain what's happening to your friends, since we will need all the help we can get now."

Ralph winced again as he took the girls aside and told them about the mountain imps, Larry and Terry glared up at Rick, "Ralph didn't want us involved." Larry snapped, "He kept saying that you two would handle it, but we convinced him to tell us and volunteered our services."

Terry handed Rick a pair of goggles, "Ralph explained about how lemon juice helps you see them, so we figured instead of subjecting ourselves to the pain of lemon juice in our eyes, we instead covered these goggles in lemon juice." Rick placed the goggles on and saw the fairy sitting just inside the grates of the nearby air vent, it scowled at him and stuck it's tongue out at him before retreating into the shadows of the vent.

"Luckily it seems to work just as well." Terry finished.

Rick sighed, feeling guilty for scolding his brother for getting his friends involved. Thinking about it now, it was probably better now that there were seven sets of eyes (if you're including Roxy's too) looking out for the cursed thing than just two. Plus they came up with ways to see them without going thorough excruciating pain and long range weapons to take care of it without attracting too much attention.

"Alright…" he breathed as he rubbed his temples, he needed to think, he needed to come up with a plan, where would it strike and how could they get it before it did any damage, glancing at the wall, where a poster for the party today sat along side the fire alarm. Then he smiled and cried out, "URBAN RANGERS! LINE UP!" Making the first graders stiffen and quickly line up in front of him, all of them doing the Urban Rangers salute while standing firmly at attention.

"Alright, Rangers." He said, his tone stern, "Here is the plan."

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Ralph and his friends returned to the classroom from lunch with the other first graders to do their Valentine Exchange after Rick gave them their instructions, the goggles and water pistols stuffed in their pockets, just in case anyone in their class started acting funny.

Ralph looked at the bag under his desk, where he, much like the other kids in the class, had placed his Valentines for his class, frowning a bit when he remembered that, in their haste to prepare for the Mountain Sprite, he hadn't made a valentine for the girl he liked, but he still had the special sweet that he had made, so hopefully that would get his feelings across on it's own. He happily picked up his sack of Valentines and began distributing them into the boxes they had decorated earlier. Leaving the special one for last, Larry and Terry distracting Jasmine, Penny and Roxy so they wouldn't tease them about his crush, like they had been ever since Ralph first told them he _had_ a crush. Which must had been a long time ago since he'd liked this girl since, well, _forever_, and hopefully his special Valentine would help him at least help him get closer with her if not totally win her heart.

Once he finished stuffing his valentines in his classmate's boxes, he smiled and sat down against the wall with Larry and Terry, who also finished passing their valentines around, and the others who had finished distributing their cards and candy.

"Well?" Terry asked. Ralph smiled and nodded, obviously pleased with himself. The two Kankers patted him on the back, "Finally." Larry said, "We were worried you might have a break down if you didn't give her a Valentine."

"And how sad would that be if you were institutionalized at age six?" Terry teased making the three boys laughed for a bit as Jasmine, Penny and Roxy sat down beside them, "What are you guys laughing about?" Jasmine asked.

"Guy stuff." Larry and Terry replied in unison. Before either Jasmine or Roxy could demand that they elaborate, the teacher clapped her hands and told them that they were going to go down to the gym in fifteen minutes for the party but they were free to open their Valentine's Day boxes, read their cards and eat their candy until then.

The first graders cheered as they leapt off the floor and raced to their seats, Ralph went to his desk and turned to see how his Valentine would be received, his eyes wide and eager as he watched his crush open her box…

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Rick let his mind wander as he absentmindedly looked through the pile of valentines on his desk, since after first grade, they stopped making little mailboxes and instead would go to the student's assigned desk, which had their name taped to it, and place their valentines on top of it.

"Hey, Rick?" He jumped, sending a few of his Valentines flying into the air only to fall back onto his desk as he turned to Mia and Tia, who both looked like the cats who ate the canaries, which was never a good sign, as they watched him take deep breaths to calm himself.

"Yes?" he replied, only for the two to drag him out of the room while speaking in unison, "We'd like to speak to you in private!" they said.

Rick called out to his best friends for help, and, to his relief, they leapt from their seats to save him… only to be stopped when their sister stepped in their path and whispered something. Then the two triplets looked at him solemnly before hanging their heads, making Rick's stomach sink further into his guts as the Kanker sisters opened the door and dragged him through it.

Once they were outside the classroom and out of earshot, in case anyone was leaning against the door, the two girls looking back and forth down the halls to insure that no one was eavesdropping before Mia finally said, "Okay, we're just going to come on out and say it." Rick looked at them, confused as to what _they_ would have to say to _him_ that they couldn't say in front of anyone else.

"We know you like Kim." Tia confessed quietly. Rick's face burned brightly as he pulled his hat to cover his face in an attempt to hide it, "Rick doesn't really know what you're talking-"

"Don't _even_ try denying it." Tia warned, "_We_ know you like her, _you_ know you like her, you can just come out and say it, we won't tell anyone." Rick glanced up at them, surprised, "Really?"

"Yeah, you're one of the nicest guys around and if Calvin and Noah ever found out that you like their sister, they'd be even _more_ obnoxious then they already are." Mia explained.

"As if that's even possible." Tia commented.

"Anyway, we think it's sweet that you like her and we wanted to let you know that we've got your back." Mia said, "That's all."

Rick smiled, "Thanks Mia. Thanks Tia. Rick really appreciates it."

"No problem." The twins sang, "We'll let you know if we come up with anything that will give you two some alone time!" they added, giggling as they slipped back into the classroom. Rick sighed with relief, pleased that they were on his side. Because even without their infamous older brother to back them up, Mia and Tia were quite talented and vicious opponents in their own rights.

They, like all the Kanker cousins, they were brutal in battle(well, except for Emma, but she was still an infant and Rick figured that it was only a matter of time before she too, joined her family's fighting ranks.) but Mia and Tia were skilled with taking down an opponent not just with their fists, but with their_ words_. The twins could tear anyone from kids their age to grown adults to shreds with little effort and a few choice words hitting where they knew it would count. So Rick was pleased that they had decided that him liking their best friend was a good thing or else he might have been driven to at the very least, tears, and at the very worse, insanity.

He re-entered the classroom and sat back at his desk, surprised to find Kim's Valentine on the top of the pile, but when he went to reach for it, their teacher announced that it was time for the party and clapped for everyone to line up. Rick took his place in line and sucked in a breath.

It was time.

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The Sprite sat in the vent above the gym, waiting.

It knew there was a party that was going to happen in here and that it would be filled with children it could use as target practice. It smiled impishly as it watched children pour in, the smile faltering when he spotted the boy with the cowboy hat enter.

That boy had put a damper on it's fun since this morning, if it wasn't for him, the Sprite would be watching a school full of children erupt with young love, jealousy and drama. But instead, it'd had to hide and go on the defensive after the cowboy hat kid got those younger kids involved to start chasing it down and shooting at it, the little brats!

The sprite's eyes stayed glued to the boy as he looked for a weak spot, a kink in the kid's armor…

Only to find something much better than that when a blonde girl wearing a pink cap began pulling him out towards the dance floor, making him grab his hat near the back of his head to keep it on and revealed his crimson face to the sprite as she pulled him into the middle of the dance floor where she took his hand in hers and put his other arm on her shoulder, smiling as she they started to spin.

It's smile grew wide, 'Target Acquired.' It thought as it hit the girl square in the back and watched her contort in the boy's arms, his eyes wide with horror for a moment before glaring right up at the sprite, the lemon coated goggles sitting above an angry scowl.

But it was too late, if that boy was going to do something, that girl would get in his way… 'And now it's time for some fun.' The sprite thought as it grabbed a handful of arrows and started to laugh as it fired wildly into the dance. (Author's Note: man, I just can't let my characters enjoy a school dance/party, can I?)

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Penny, Roxy and Jasmine glanced around the hallway, keeping an eye out for both sprites and teachers before slipping into the water heater room with the janitor's dirty water bucket, their instructions still clear in their minds:

"The sprite will probably attack when we are all gathered around at the party in the gym, now, we won't know where it's coming from, but we _can_ make sure the arrows he does shoot become ineffective."

"How do we do that?" Roxy had asked.

"Simple, Ranger Roxy," he said, then pointed to the ceiling.

"The ceiling?" Jasmine said, confused, "how will that help."

"He's not pointing to the _ceiling_." Larry said with a growing smile revealing the gap in his two front teeth.

"He's pointing to the _sprinklers_." Terry revealed, his gap-toothed smile big on his face.

"Exactly." Rick said, then looked to his younger brother, "Ranger Penny, Ranger Roxy, Ranger Jasmine, you will gather what is needed for the antidote, Ranger Ralph, you will find the main tanks and get the antidote inside."

"What about us?" the twins asked in unison.

"You are the ones who are going to work with the pipes." He said with a smile, making the black haired twins' smile grow wider at the challenge.

"Wait, what are you going to do, Rick?" Ralph asked him.

"Rick will do what needs to be done," he said, "Just be sure to arrive back before the teachers realize you have been missing for too long, is that clear?"

The young Rangers saluted him before scurrying off to class.

Penny, Roxy and Jasmine crept around the dark room, a little nervous do to the little light in their surroundings.

"H-hey, wa-wa-where's Ralph?" Roxy asked.

"SLAUGHOV!" a male voice cried from behind the water boiler, the two girls jumped at the sound before realizing that there was only one boy they knew who made that sound.

"Welp, found him." Jasmine said plainly before they slipped behind the water boiler to see Ralph holding a large chunk of cement over his head while Larry and Terry were speaking their weird twin language that they used whenever they were working on something complicated.

"Uh, got the antidote." Jasmine called down, the boys looked up at them and smiled, "Good." Larry said, "Because we believe we've figured everything out."

"Come on!" Terry urged as the girls handed Ralph the bucket to pour into the water tank that was connected to the school's sprinklers, "We've gotta hurry, who knows what's going on in the gym!"

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Rick was reaching his limit, he felt as if he could hardly breathe… but in a good way. Kim was hugging him tightly, complimenting him, and snuggling with him and he felt as if he was floating on air, and her brothers weren't angry or annoyed with him about it. But, then again, they were too busy flirting with Mia and Tia to notice their sister rubbing against him like a cat, which Rick knew would end badly, Calvin and Noah flirting with Mia and Tia, not him with Kim. But heck, probably most of the new relationships that had budded from the Sprite's arrows would end badly (hopefully not his though).

Rick shook his head, he was on a mission, and he couldn't let himself get distracted by a pretty girl hugging him tightly! … but it was really nice… NO! He was EIGHT, for Nana's sake! He shouldn't be so happy about a girl hugging him until he was _at least_ fourteen!

Rick struggled to move backwards against the flirting crowd, which was really the only direction Kim would let him go since if he went forward their faces would get closer and she'd giggle and move her head closer to his in a way that made Rick's heart pound in his ears, and while he wouldn't really have minded that, in his current situation where almost everyone but him wasn't completely themselves at the moment, it felt wrong for him to enjoy her attention while her irises were still pink from the nasty imp's poisoned arrow.

Finally, after what had to be the longest walk ever, he finally felt the wall behind him along with the thing he had been looking for.

"Hey Rick?" Kim said with a giggle, Rick looked at her, curious and a little guilty that she had been hit because of him, only to get a kiss on the cheek.

His head felt light as it practically glowed bright red, steam rocketed out of his ears and balanced his hat a few inches off of his head as a goofy smile curled up his face and Kim giggled and hugged him tight.

"Ha!" the Sprite cried as it flew out of the vent, "What are you gonna do, kid? You can't stop me! And even if you _could_ stop me, you _wouldn't_! Cause you can't cure everyone here _and_ get the girl!" it then aimed an arrow at Rick's forehead, which was now wide open due to the steam blowing his hat upwards.

Rick looked at the Sprite, still kinda dazed from the kiss, his face cherry red and his hat still hovering over his head as he grabbed the fire alarm and pulled it down, making the alarm blare and the sprinklers turn on, raining the cure down on everyone in the gym, the Mountain Imp quickly fleeing out of the gym as fast as it could.

"Rick thinks that he can do both," he said softly as everyone else in the gym began to snap out of their love-arrow induced dazes, "the second thing might take a while, but Rick thinks he can do it."

Calvin and Noah found themselves kissing Mia and Tia's cheeks before the four of them froze in disbelief. Mia and Tia were soon growling darkly at them with curled up fists and enraged faces as the boys cried out that they had no idea it was them and that they'd _never_ do that otherwise because Mia and Tia, were, _well_, Mia and Tia, which was gross. These statements only making the twins _madder_ about not only getting _kissed_ by guys _they didn't like_ but that apparently the guys who had done that seemed to think that kissing _them_ was disgusting. The girls' grimaces soon turned into teeth gnashing, their blue teeth visible for a moment before they tackled them to the ground, shouting back how they were the worst and the four of them began rolling on the ground in a fistfight.

Kim seemed dazed for a moment before asking what was happening and then, after blushing and pushing off of Rick while apologizing for falling on him and knocking him into the fire alarm (which she assumed she did, since she couldn't really remember much since she pulled him out onto the dance floor and she suddenly found herself clinging to him while he was backed against the wall and his hand was on the fire alarm) she then asked if he was okay. He nodded and replied that his safety wasn't in as much danger as her brothers' were and the two, along with some teachers and a few chaperones, had to yank the four wrestling on the ground apart, Larry, Terry, Ralph, Jasmine, Penny and Roxy quickly slipping into the crowd and playing dumb as they were herded out of the gym and taken outside until the fire department could come and tell them why it went off.

Luckily the fire department came quickly and established that the alarm was pulled by mistake, but they had no idea how the sprinklers came on without a fire happening.

"Maybe something's up with the pipe?" The Author, who had been chaperoning and freaking out about 'déjà vu' during the party when everyone started acting funny and had leapt into the gym supply closet right before the sprinklers came on, "I mean, the school's pretty old, maybe a pipe is leaking up there and it finally just all came down on us? I mean, the water that came down was kinda smelly…" The firefighters nodded and gave the principal the name of a good plumber before waving to the kids and wishing them a Happy Valentine's Day before everyone was let back in to gather their things and go home.

Mia, Tia, Calvin and Noah were taken to the principal's office for the fistfight in the gym and for him to call their parents and inform them about what had happened after explaining _how_ the fight had started. Poor Rick was also taken to the principal's office to explain why he had pulled the fire alarm, which he explained was an accident and apologized for profusely, and since he was a good kid who never pulled a stunt like that before, he was let off the hook with an 'accidents happen but try to be more careful, Rick' and a quick call to his parents explaining what had happened before he was excused to gather his belongings and go home.

Rick quickly gathered his things, knowing that Kim was probably waiting for him, Mia and Tia and her brothers outside. He pulled the little cow with the cowboy hat out of his pocket, deciding to start working on getting the girl when he met up with her outside.

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Kim leaned against the big stone railing that led up to the school, feeling restless as she waited for the others to come out and hoping that Rick wouldn't get in too much trouble for accidently pulling the fire alarm when he was trying to stop her from getting hurt… not that she wasn't worried about Mia and Tia and her brothers, because she often _was_ worried about them. But, the four of them were often together in the principal's office being scolded, so she wouldn't bother worrying about them until later when their parents came home and scolded them. Usually what she did was just patiently wait for them to come out and try to keep the peace between the two groups until they all got home… although, usually Rick was waiting with her and would chat with her until the others were released from the Principal's Office and had gathered their things and would help her calm them down simply by talking to them.

She felt guilty for getting him into trouble, especially since he often was so helpful to her and her brothers and put up with her brothers' cocky antics without complaint, which was something even she, with her sweet nature, had trouble doing.

She caught the little yellow cat she had made on her bag in her peripheral vision and perked back up at the thought that she could make it up to him while teaching him how to make a cute stuffed toy for his sister, thinking that maybe she could make something for Ralph so Rick wouldn't feel bad about not making something for his brother too. She smiled, pleased with her plan as she pulled out her friends' birthday gifts and smiled vibrantly at them.

"I think after the birthday they've had," she said cheerfully, "I might give you two to them early to cheer them up so they won't complain about Calvin and Noah all night!" She then jumped at the sound of voices from her left, making her gifts fly into the air and fall to the ground as three older boys quickly walked towards her, her homemade kittens lying in their wake, "Wait!" she cried as she leaned down to get them, only for a tall, green haired boy to quickly scoop them up and hold them high above his head, "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Kim looked at the three boys and felt her throat become dry. She knew these dudes! Actually, it was more like she knew _of_ them.

It was Tim, Tom and Ty, three boys who Kim often heard Andy complain about whenever she was over at his house playing with Mia and Tia. She knew enough about them from Andy's insults and cruel nicknames to identify them.

Tim was the 'crazy, violent midget' who looked to be maybe even a little shorter than Andy who, 'dressed like he was going to a fancy country club instead of harassing anything in a skirt.' She also recalled Andy rubbing parts of his body, complaining about cheap shots and how he was 'gonna cream that little deep fried shrimp' next time they crossed paths.

Tom was the 'so-called genius who's dumb enough not ta know what the word 'no' means' who dressed in 'classic nerd clothes' and had purple hair and goggles resting on his forehead.

And Ty was the '_friggin_' _dumbest jerk I've ever met!_' he was 'skinny like a carrot with the stupid green hair to go with it!" And apparently the leader of this trio. She vaguely recalled Andy's warning to her and his sisters' being, "If those jerks ever come around ta bother ya, call for me, alright? You'll only get hurt if ya try to take them alone..." But the warning faded away as Ty began pulling at the little cats' legs and the metal part of the keychain as if ready to tear them apart just to see what was inside.

"Come on, dude!" she cried as she began jumping up into the air trying to grab them out of his hands, "Those are birthday presents for my friends and I really worked hard on them!" The boy shoved his hand into her face, holding her back as he purred, "Oh _really?_"

"Come on, Ty." Tom said, seeming to be already bored with the situation, "we need to go to my house if we want to finish our project…"

"Just a sec!" Ty laughed as Kim squirmed to pass his hand and get her friends' gifts back, "Hey Tim, catch!" he cried, tossing them to his short, tan friend, whose smile sent shivers down her spine as he caught them, "What's the matter, Chica?" he purred, "Don't you want these back?" he asked, his voice feigning innocence as he swung them around his fingers. Now, Kim knew they were gonna play keep away with her, but she also knew that she wouldn't be able to get the cat keychains back unless she ran back and forth for their amusement, so she, with a pout on her face, ran over to Tim, and reached for it, only for him to grab her hands and start squeezing them, making her yelp a bit in pain.

"Come on, I thought you wanted these back?" he purred, squeezing her arms a little harder than before. Kim bit back a pained whimper and put on a brave face.

But before she said a word, a multicolored blur rammed into Tim, making him release the cats into the air as a backpack plopped into the snow with a cowboy hat flopping to the ground beside it.

Kim jumped for them only for Ty to push her into the snow and snag them in mid-air and turned to look at whatever had mowed his friend off of his feet, Kim grimaced in pain before realizing that the blur that had knocked the scary kid off his feet was…

"Rick?" she murmured, horrified as she watched him wrestle to keep Tim pinned to the ground and was getting the tar beaten out of him for it.

Ty glanced down at her, annoyed, "Tell your boyfriend to lay off and take his beating or the kittens get it." he threatened in a serious tone. Kim glanced back at Rick who was putting up the best fight he could muster when the guy you've got pinned to the ground just kicked you between the legs then up at Ty who looked ready to make good on his threat, she looked at Tom, silently pleading for him to stop this, only to be met with the eyes of a boy who was completely unphased by his friends' behavior, it was as if he was watching a movie he had seen a million times and didn't really care what happened either way.

She looked at Rick, who was starting to bleed and went over to him, ready to peel him off of Tim before he murdered both of them, only for a red blur to wham into Ty, "WHY YOU LOUSY-!" Andy shouted as he tackled him to the ground and the two started throwing punches.

Sheldon gingerly lifted Rick off of Tim, but pressed his foot onto the boy's throat and glared darkly at him while April and Allbert gently took the beaten boy from his hand and Allbert began treating the wounds, pressing snow against the red marks that were sure to be bruises when morning came and pressing his handkerchief against his bleeding nose and began bandaging the scratches that were visible. April cooed soft words to him, assuring Rick that he was okay and that everything was alright now… until Kim gently patted her shoulder, looking ready to cry and the girl opened her arms up for her to leap in, sobbing.

The remaining Von Bartonschmeer triplets and the pink haired Kanker twins finally emerged from the school, instantly becoming enraged as they stomped down the steps.

Calvin and Noah, upon realizing that Andy was already dealing with one of them, decided to go for Tim, since he was closest to their beaten friend and sobbing sister. They walked over towards him with eyes full of rage and fists clenched before looking at Sheldon for confirmation.

The blonde Kanker nodded as he removed his foot from Tim's throat, releasing curses at Sheldon for getting in his way, only for Calvin and Noah to start kicking him, demanding to know what was wrong with him and why he beat the tar out of their friend and made their sister cry.

Mia and Tia were silent but their eyes were stormy as they looked at the two boys stomping on another, then at their brother beating Ty with his own fist and asking, 'Why are ya hittin' yourself? Why are ya hittin' yourself?' over and over again before they settled on the only member of the trio who wasn't being justly punished and swiftly stepped over to Tom until their glaring faces were merely inches from his, their mouths open and ready to start ripping him limb from limb with their venomous words when April finally shouted, "ENOUGH!"

All but Allbert stopped what they were doing to look at her, "These guys aren't worth it, let's just go home." April said, her voice was firm, but filled with enough hurt to make Tim, Tom and Ty wince a bit at her words.

Andy, Mia, Tia, Calvin and Noah glared at their prey a moment before making faces of disgust and going over to check on Rick and Kim, allowing Ty and Tim to pull themselves up and slip towards their companion, quietly cursing the elder Kankers for getting into the way of their fun while Tom simply patted their shoulders and jerked his thumb behind him, as if to say, 'forget them, let's go.' The two nodded and the three briskly walked away, leaving the elder children of the cul-de-sac to lead the third graders home.

.

.

.

Ralph walked home with his friends, leaving his elder brother behind. He felt bad about his brother getting in trouble for the sprinklers, but while they had been waiting for the fire truck to arrive, Rick whispered, "Rick will be fine, you can go home with your friends like always, you all earned it." then ruffled his hair and explained that he was very proud of him and that he had been wise to ask his friends for aid and that if he hadn't, everyone would still be under the Mountain Imp's spell.

"You did very good, Ralph." He had said, then told him that he'd see him when he got home and not to let the evil archer's chaos ruin his day.

Ralph nodded and left with his friends like his brother had told him to, chatting and laughing until they got to the cul-de-sac and the group split apart to get to their respective homes. Ralph was five feet from his front door when he heard Roxy say, "Uh, Ralph?" He turned, curious, as Penny held up his special Valentine treat so it was level with Roxy as the rock asked, "Penny wants to know what this is."

Ralph flushed, silently berating himself for not making a homemade valentine to stick in her Valentine box as well as he rubbed the back of his head nervously, "Well, uh, in the Old Country," he began, his mouth becoming drier as he spoke and sweat beginning to pour out of his body. "It's a special treat one gives to…to… to good friends in need of confidence!" he said, wishing he had eaten a special treat to give him the confidence to just tell Penny that he was completely head-over-heels for her instead of coming up with such a bad lie!

"Confidence?" Roxy repeated, the confusion in her voice matching Penny's expression as the girl looked at the large glob of food that he had wrapped in red cellophane.

"Uh, yes… well…" 'Stop beating around the bush, Ralph!' he scolded himself, 'just reveal your feelings for her and she will surely return them…' his chest feeling heavy as he asked himself, 'won't she?' His whole body feel as if it was boiling and he was ridden with doubt, was revealing his feelings worth it if she didn't feel the same? Would it ruin their friendship? Ralph wasn't sure if he was willing to risk losing her in his life, especially since they were so close and had been growing up together…

"In the old country, when one needs a little courage to speak their mind, they eat this and it gives them the courage of a lion, yes?"

"And why would she need the courage of a lion?" Roxy asked.

"Well, uh, as much as the Son of a Cowpoke likes talking with Roxy, um, well…" he felt his face burn so hotly that he wouldn't have been surprised if his blue hair suddenly turned red like fire as he looked down at his feet as he began drawing shapes in the snow with his toes and spoke in a soft voice, "I'd like to hear what Penny has to say too…"

Penny's cheeks turned pink and a small smile curled up on them. Ralph looked up at her, a little embarrassed, only for his eyes to widen as she pulled him into a tight hug, "Thank you, Ralph." He heard her whisper into his ear before quickly pulling away with a big smile on her face and skipping home, Roxy tucked under her arm so she could shyly wave at him before dashing into her home, clutching his gift like it was a priceless treasure.

Ralph felt as if he was standing on a cloud, his whole body feeling light and warm as he started to float.

He may not have gotten his feelings across, but his gift had made her happy and that was good enough for now, maybe one day when he was older he could muster up the courage and tell her how he feels, but for now, the hug and the soft words of thanks were more than satisfactory. He let out a happy, love-lorn sigh before turning the door knob and hovering inside his home, "Valentine's day is amazing, yes?" he murmured to himself before hovering towards his bedroom to lose himself in bliss.

.

.

.

After Kim and her brothers arrived home, they found their parents in the living room, their dad looking disappointed while their mother looked livid. The boys gulped as they sheepishly entered the living room, Kim quickly made the decision that she was going to use this time to take a shower and figure out what she was going to do about her friends' birthday presents.

After mulling over it for an hour, she decided to tell them what happened after school and apologize and ask if they could wait until she could make them new ones for them, since Ty probably tore their cute little heads off. She felt all the pricks and cuts on her fingers ache at the thought of all her hard work ruined because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Then she felt bad about poor Rick, who the elder Kanker cousins escorted home and probably stayed to explain what had happened to his screaming mother, not that Kim could watch his mother's horrified expression at the sight of the son who had been hurt so badly while trying to help her, she had scurried into the house before Sheldon had knocked on the door, feeling tears of shame and guilt burn in her eyes when hearing Miss Rachel cry out, "RICK! WHAT HAS HAPPENED!? WHO WAS THE MONGREL WHO BEAT RACHEL'S ELDEST CHILD!? WHEN RACHEL GETS HER HANDS ON THE CULPRIT, SHE WILL SHOW THEM NO MERCY AS SHE GIVES THEM A _**THREE SHOE BEATING**_!"

"Kim?" Her mom called up to her, jolting her from her thoughts, "Aren't you going up to Mia and Tia's house for their birthday?" Kim sucked in a breath, then said, "Yeah Mom, just packing my bag!" Kim then quickly began throwing an over night back together before throwing it over her shoulder and saying good bye to her family, telling them that she loved them before hopping out the door and running to her best friends' house.

Andy opened the door, looked at her and motioned for her to move over on the front porch before hopping out there with her and closing the door behind him, "Mia and Tia are still fuming about what happened earlier, give 'um five minutes to cool down, that way you'll have more fun braiding each other's hair rather then planning various revenge schemes." He said plainly.

She nodded, then asked, " are you, Double-L and Sheldon gonna get the flowers for everyone?"

He smirked, "'Course we are, when does _anyone else_ _**ever**_ have to get the flowers?"

She chuckled a bit at that, and his smirk slowly fell into a stern expression, "What happened before we got there, Kim?" he asked, his voice gruffer and calmer than she was used to, surprising her. She took a deep breath, not wanting the twins to see any tears and spend the rest of their birthday cheering her up instead of enjoying themselves and told Andy what had happened.

He listened intently, his face and body twitching when she explained why Rick had gotten his rear handed to him by Tim. When she was finished, he looked up at her, his bangs moving a bit and revealing that he had the same beautiful blue eyes that his sisters did as he said that, "Next time those thugs bother ya, don't play their game, just call for one of us and we'll take care of it, understood?" Kim nodded, her cheeks tinted pink due to the influence of his eyes.

"Good." He purred, smiling as he placed two familiar pink keychains in her hands. Kim's eyes widened as she inspected them, only to see what little damage that Ty caused had been repaired. "Nearly had to break Ty's wrists to get 'um back, but," he gently touched all of the visible bandages on her hands and fingers as he said, "You worked really hard to make 'um, so I figured I should work just as hard to save 'um."

Kim felt her face flush, "T-thank you, Andy." She stuttered. His hair fell back over his eyes as he gently ruffled her hair and grinned, "Happy to help, Kim." He then hopped down his front steps, calling out over his shoulder, "you can go in now, they're probably ready to forget about how rotten it was today and have some fun," before he turned to face his emerging cousins, Sheldon holding a wagon while Allbert held a long, rolled up receipt and for the three of them to make their way back to town and all the way to the flower shop.

Kim smiled warmly at him, her cheeks rosy and her heart pounding as she opened the door and was immediately greeted with big hugs from her best friends before she shut the door behind her, not knowing that Rick had seen the whole exchange from his bedroom window, his chest aching at her pink cheeks.

.

.

.

Conner came home with everything Rachel had asked him to pick up for groceries (which with Rachel, could be much harder than it seemed) and saw her cradling their daughter with a worried expression, "Rach?" he called, "You okay?"

She looked up at him, concerned, "Rachel is fine, but our sons…" she bit her lip, as if trying to find the right words to describe their elder children's current conditions only to come up with, "…they are acting very… _strange_."

Conner was quiet for a moment, letting his wife's words settle before motioning towards the steps, as if to ask if they were up there, Rachel nodded solemnly. He gave his wife and daughter a kiss on the cheek before saying, "I got 'um, you think yer Mom and Pop wouldn't mind helping to unload the groceries while I get a handle on them?" Rachel nodded, looking relieved as he bounced up the steps and she called for her parents to help her with the groceries.

He quickly decided to handle Ralph first as he made his way upstairs, since he was a very optimistic and cheerful child, he probably wouldn't take long for him to sort out, Rick on the other hand, was very thoughtful and quiet, like he had been as a child, and when it was visible that something was wrong, it meant that something was _really_ wrong.

Conner knocked on Ralph's door, "Ralph, you in there?"

"Yes Papa…" his younger son replied dreamily, making his dad jerk his head back in surprise before shaking his head and entering the boy's bedroom, to see his middle child floating happily one moment, then bouncing back onto his bed, thoughtful, then smiled dreamily and began floating again.

Conner watched his son continue this loop for another few minutes before cracking a smile and saying, "I guess your Valentine to Penny worked out well." Ralph plopped back onto his bed, looking a little sullen, "Sort of."

Ralph watched his father cross the room, sit down beside him and motion for him to continue, "I gave her the sweet, but she didn't understand what it meant…"

"And?"

Ralph hung his head and sighed, "I told her that, in the old country, it was given to those in need of confidence…"

"Instead of telling her the truth and that it's given to someone they admire." Conner finished for him. Ralph nodded, downtrodden, "So why are you so happy then?" A love-addled expression grew on the boy's face as he said, "Penny hugged me and thanked me for the treat. Not _Roxy_, but _Penny._ That is not something that happens very often, so of course the Son of a Cowpoke is pleased that it allowed him to hear her speak for herself." Conner chuckled as he ruffled the boy's blue hair, "So you're one step closer?"

"Yes, Papa." He said, his chest puffed up with pride.

"Good to hear, Ralph." He then got up and said, "Your Mama's making dinner, why don't you wash up and head down to help her?" Ralph nodded and dashed past his dad and into the bathroom to wash up while Conner strolled out of the room and walked to Rick's bedroom door, 'One down, one to go.' He thought as he knocked on Rick's door, "Hey, Rick, you in there?"

He heard a barely audible "Yes Papa" in reply and opened the door and saw that his eldest was covered in bandages and green goop that Conner knew helped heal bruises. After establishing that he was wounded and having a silent internal rage filled rant about beating the sons of various guns who roughed his kid up like this, he focused on his son's facial expression and body language, quickly decoding it before sitting down on an open part of the bed and asked, "What's her name?"

Rick pushed his hat up, revealing red puffy eyes and a red nose as he replied, "It's Kim."

"Kim, as in, your best friends' sister, Kim?" his dad inquired for clarification, Rick gave him a small nod in response, wincing a bit in pain. "Did they find out you liked her or…?"

"Those bullies that Andy, Allbert and Sheldon deal with a lot were picking on her." Rick said as a brief explanation, too ashamed of his beating to make eye contact with his father. "And you stepped in and got your rear handed to you?" Conner guessed.

"Rick and Kim had to be rescued by Andy, Allbert, Sheldon and April." Rick confirmed.

"Well, was she alright?"

"Yes."

"Then you did good." His father said plainly, "I don't see why you're so down about this?"

"Because, despite Rick's heroic efforts, Kim has a crush on Andy." He murmured, catching his dad by surprise before hiding his face with his hat.

Conner was silent for a moment, processing the information he now had before asking, "Well, does Andy seem interested in her like that?"

It was Rick's turn to be surprised then silent as he recalled what happened earlier, "Rick doubts it, if anything, Andy probably sees Kim as another younger sister." He replied, "but it still sucks that after suffering such a beating that she likes Andy and not Rick." He felt his dad lift his hat off of his head and ruffled his hair, "If all was fair in love and war, I would've had your Mama's heart _a lot_ sooner." Rick chuckled, recalling the stories of struggle his Papa endured to win his Mama's heart that he told him when he was younger. "Don't get down about something you can't do anything about, instead of being jealous of Andy, who's not even interested, why don't you show her just the kind of man you are? She'll come to her senses eventually, just be patient."

Rick nodded as he put his hat back on his head and murmured, "Rick still wishes he could take all the pain and anger and take it out on something…"

Ding Dong! The doorbell sang.

The two quickly scurried out of Rick's room and over to the front door with Rachel standing at the door with Connie in one hand, Ralph peeking out from her left leg and her parents as a familiar blonde woman handed them a package, "I found this _thing_ in front of the flower shop." She explained, handing everyone a pair of goggles, "I heard you all know a thing or two about disposing of these _things_ and decided to do our community a favor and bring it to you." She opened the box, revealing the Mountain Imp who had caused Rick and Ralph so much trouble at school earlier that day and placed it into Conner's hands, "Well, I leave _this_ in all of your very capable hands." The Author said deviously as she turned around and walked out of the cul-de-sac, whistling a cheerful tune.

Conner held the box up to his eldest son, "Well, you said that you wanted something you could take your anger out on…"

A sly smile grew on the boy's face as he declared that, "This will do."


	7. Visit (Cole)

(Author's Note: This story features a character I introduced in Chapter 13, Cole, who Ruri Kzalt created for me as a love interest for Sam and Jamie's eldest daughter, Jasmine. He joins Larry, Terry, Ralph, Jasmine and Penny's group when they're eight. I actually wrote this thing a long time ago and wanted to wait until after I at least introduced him to you all before dumping this story on you. Then I forgot about it until today and decided to share it with you all, not only so you can meet this new character, but so you can see a little more of what they get up to. So, everyone, without further ado, meet Cole Vorce and his mother Robin...)

Robin Vorce sat in her scrubs at a table in an empty room, waiting.

She fidgeted nervously in her seat, her baby was coming to visit her today, which would make it the first time he'd seen her since he moved in with her sister after her ex-husband, Roger, was sent to prison and she and her sister decided to send her to this mental hospital for help.

Even though she was grateful for the care and treatments she got here and that her sister could watch her baby boy, she missed him terribly.

She heard a buzz and the door open, thinking that it was probably the doctor to tell her how to talk to her own child again before he arrived.

"Mom?" She looked up and saw a boy with green hair that was shaved into a mohawk, and although she could recognize the boy anywhere, the hair threw her off for a moment.

But just for a moment.

"My baby." She replied softly as she got up and held out her arms for him as he raced over and launched himself into her warm embrace. They held each other for what felt like a wonderful eternity, tears of joy leaking from their eyes as she murmured, "My baby…" and kissed the top of his head, which was a little strange without the mop of green locks that he had before she came here, but her son was happy and safe in her arms and that was all a mother needed.

"Hey Robin." Another familiar voice cooed. Robin looked up at her sister and brother-in-law, "Hey. How are you feeling?"

"Meh, between the treatments and the weed, I hardly know anymore." She replied with a laugh. "We're great, how are you?" Her brother-in-law answered in her stead.

"Better." Robin replied as she put her son down, "Thanks again for taking care of Cole while I'm here. With Ruby's cancer, you probably have enough on your plates…"

"Forget the cancer," Ruby said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Cole has plenty to tell you about what's happened this past month, we'll talk to the doctors and be back to tell you all about my depressing physical health later." she said with a smile.

And with that, after a quick hug and kiss from both of them, the two left the room and carefully closed the door behind them.

Robin then indicated the two chairs at the table, Cole smiled and they took their seats, holding hands and letting them rest on the table.

"So, how do you like living with Aunt Ruby and Uncle Martin?"

"It's good, they're taking good care of me and they've been asking me about which school I want to go to and stuff."

"Have you made any friends?" she asked, hoping that he'd say yes. He had no friends growing up and she wanted him to be happy and surrounded by people who cared and treasured her baby boy as much as she did.

To her utter joy, a large, vibrant smile lit up his face, "Yeah! I've made a bunch of them!"

"Well, tell me about them! How did you meet them? What are their names? What kinds of games do you play?" Robin urged, eager to hear about his new friends.

"Well, I was in Aunt Ruby's backyard for a while, trying to figure out how to make friends, and was about to give up and go inside when three boys my age fell over the fence. Ralph introduced himself first, he has blue hair and talks kinda weird, but he's really nice and friendly and strong. Then Larry and Terry introduced themselves, they're twins with black hair and invent cool machines."

"How can you tell them apart?" Robin asked, smiling as widely as Cole was.

"Larry wears glasses and Terry doesn't, but Larry doesn't really need glasses, they explained that they're more like goggles and that since Larry codes more then Terry, he wears them more. People began being able to tell them apart easier because of it, so they've been sticking with it." Cole explained, then went on to say that, "So I asked why they hopped the fence, I mean, it's a high fence, you really have to work hard to climb over it. Apparently Larry and Terry's new invention blew up in their faces and they were picking up the pieces and the last one was in a tree in the backyard. Then we hopped onto each other's backs and got it back. Larry and Terry thanked me and Ralph for helping and Ralph said that 'that's what friends are for.' Then they invited me to help them fix it and I hung out with them for the rest of the day, and when I was going to leave to go back home, they invited me, Aunt Ruby and Uncle Martin to a barbeque in their neighborhood the next day!"

"That's wonderful!" Robin cried excitedly, "Did you all have fun?"

"Yeah! I met the rest of the kids in the neighborhood and their parents at the barbeque, and they were all really nice and friendly and told me and Aunt Ruby and Uncle Martin were always welcome and that if they ever needed anything to let them know!"

Robin was stunned for a moment, then gave Cole's hands a squeeze, "I'm so glad you have so many people around you who care about you and are looking out for you, Sweetheart, it means a lot to me to know that you're happy and safe and enjoying yourself." Cole beamed and squeezed back.

"So, what have you and your friends been doing this summer?"

"Well, I've been playing with Ralph, Terry, Larry and these two girls I met at the barbeque, Penny and Jasmine for most of the summer. Penny's nice and funny, but really shy, so she talks through her rock, she calls it Roxy, using ventriloquism. And Jasmine's a tough girl, but she's always really, really nice to me!" Robin smirked when she saw that his smile got a little bigger and his cheeks turned a little rosy when he mentioned this Jasmine girl, but she didn't say a word and let him tell her about all the stuff he'd done that summer so far:

"We've all become really good friends and done tons of cool stuff! We've built our own race cars out of spare parts from this junk yard nearby and raced around the neighborhood! We've gone swimming in a creek together! We've gone around a forest pretending to be explorers to a new land! We've been getting ninja training from Penny's dad, Mr. Patrick! And Mr. Conner and Miss Rachel, Ralph's mom and dad, run a daycare center and a scout troop from their farm called the Urban Rangers and all the kids in the neighborhood are a part of it, so I became a Urban Ranger too and have been learning all sorts of cool stuff and I've gotten ten badges so far! Mr. Sam, Jasmine's dad, took us to the animation studio where he works and we made our own cartoon! And Mr. Larie, Larry and Terry's dad, taught us how to make swiss army knives and key chains and stuff out of metal in his workshop!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key chain metal heart with a picture of him, his aunt, his uncle and his mom, from right before Robin checked in here, "Here, this is for you!"

She smiled as she admired the small gift, touched that Cole had thought of her and made it for her, and that his friends' parents were so kind to him.

"Larry and Terry's mom, Miss Ann, is a doctor, and she told me if Aunt Ruby has any pain or anything to not hesitate to call her. And all of their families said that if she has to go to the hospital and Uncle Martin can't pick me up, that they'd be happy to have me as a guest and help in anyway they can!"

Tears slipped down Robin's cheeks, she was touched that these total strangers were so kind to her family, she wished she could meet with them and thank them for everything.

"That's great, Cole." She said, then asked, "Well, what have you done with your friends this week?"

"Well, on Monday, we went to the zoo and rescued a Python that was going to be put down and hid it in Larry and Terry's house!"

"That sounds like fun- wait _you stole a python from the zoo_?!"

"It was being abused, mom, my friends and I witnessed it! And when we told the head zookeeper, he didn't believe us and it wasn't fair that it was going to be killed for defending itself! So we hid in the zoo until closing time, waited for the coast to be clear, then we picked the lock to the reptile house, cut the glass with one of Larry and Terry's inventions, made a copy of all the surveillance tapes for the past month, to prove that the python was only defending itself, and all of us carried him out. It was so cool, Mom! It was like being a secret agent rescuing a comrade in arms!" Robin opened her mouth to tell Cole that, no matter what the reason was, that they shouldn't have stolen a wild animal from the zoo, only for Cole to tell her that, "Larry and Terry's parents found out and, after they explained why they took him and got a nasty visit from the zookeeper who was hurting him, they let them keep it. They told us that their parents discussed it with the zoo director and turned in the evidence we got of the abuse and the director let them keep the python, Larry and Terry named him Pythagorean, after Pythagorean's theorem, which Terry explained was a formula that was used to measure right triangles that could be simplified into the equation a squared plus b squared equals c squared. Then Larry told us that they nicknamed him 'Py' so it would be easier for people to pronounce."

"Oh, well, if it all turned out…" Robin said, unsure what else to really say about the matter.

"It did." Cole assured her, giving her hand a squeeze, then, after a minute of silence, he spoke in a soft voice, "Mom, when are you coming home with us?"

Robin's chest ached as she told Cole that, "Not for a while, Sweetheart…"

Cole's head sank into his chest, a heartbroken expression on his face, Robin gently cupped his face in her hands and lifted it up so he was looking at her, "Cole, I am not well." She brushed the tears that slid down his cheeks with her fingers as she went on to say that, "And as much as I want to be with you and your aunt and uncle, I don't want you to worry about me all the time and have to take care of me. I'm the mom, it's my job to take care of you and worry about you." Cole chuckled a bit and Robin smiled at him, "I need to get better before I can do that. This place has helped me so much, I'm sure that I'll be ready to go home with you all soon, but until then, I need to stay here. I need to keep working with the doctors and the specialists. And I need to make sure that when I do get out of here, I can be a reliable mother for you, Okay?"

"Okay mom." He sobbed, Robin got up from her chair, walked over to his side of the table, knelt down and embraced her baby boy, "You are such a strong and wonderful boy, Cole, and I love you so much and I'm so glad that you have made so many friends who see the amazing person you are and cherish you. A mother couldn't ask for anything more."

Cole hugged back and sobbed into her scrubs. Once he calmed down, Robin leaned over and finally asked something she had been wondering since he had arrived, "I know I said that that I couldn't ask for anything more, but I'd like an explanation as to what you did to your hair…"

Cole chuckled and rubbed away any left over fluid on his face, "Aunt Ruby has her head shaved because she's going through chemo, so I was gonna shave my head in support and donate my hair to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients, but I didn't want my scar to show…" he explained, rubbing his Mohawk back and forth as if to indicate where the scar he was referring to was. Robin winced, when Cole was a baby, their first apartment caught on fire with the two of them still in it, Robin had gotten second degree burns on her arms, legs and chest and Cole got a burn scar down the middle of his head when a piece of the ceiling fell and landed on Robin's chest and Cole's head, she had flung the burning plaster off of her baby boy, but the damage had been done. "So Uncle Martin suggested I get a Mohawk, so I can still show my support and hide my scar, he must have been joking, because when he saw that I had done that, he was so shocked he did a double take! Aunt Ruby was laughing so hard that she almost fell out of her wheelchair when she saw my hair!" Cole informed her, chuckling. Robin laughed with her son, a tiny voice in her head asking when they had last had such a good laugh together. She couldn't pin point the date, but she knew it had been a long time.

Then they heard a knock on the door, they turned and watched as the door buzzed open and Ruby and Martin walked in, followed by a small crowd of people.

"Hey, we went to talk to the doctors and saw some familiar faces…" Ruby said with a smile before the adults of the group walked over and formally introduced themselves to Robin while Cole walked over, greeting his friends' siblings as he made his way to his friends and asked what they were all doing here.

"Your Aunt told us that you were coming to visit your mother, Mohawk-Cole-boy, so we wanted to introduce ourselves and assure her that you are well cared for." Ralph explained.

"Indeed," Larry said, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, "Our parents wanted to introduce themselves to your mother and assure her that they are always available to you and your family if you're ever in need of aid."

"Also, Mother wanted to inform her that we have a neighborhood watch program, so she won't worry too much about you while she's here." Terry added.

"Penny's parents are lawyers," Roxy explained in Penny's place, "They wanted to tell your mom that when your dad is released, that they will get restraining orders against him for all of you and make sure that he will never bother any of you ever again!"

"My parents brought photos and gifts from everyone to make her stay here more comfortable." Jasmine added, her cheeks pink.

Cole's eyes watered a bit as he looked at his friends, he turned to look at his mom, who was surrounded by the adults who had been so welcoming and kind to him, hand his happy and stunned mother gifts and spoke to her cheerfully. Cole turned back to his friends and pulled them into a large group hug.

"Thank you." He murmured.

"There is no need to thank us." Ralph said, "This is what friends are for, yes?"

"Yeah." Cole replied with a laugh, "You're exactly right, Ralph."

Author's End Note: If anyone wants to read the full story of how they met and rescue Py the Python, please let me know and I'll put it up as soon as I can.


	8. Dance (Andy, Ty and Lorna)

It was a warm Saturday evening at Peach Creek Jr. High, where the soon-to-be high schoolers were holed up in the gym for the annual Good-Bye-Eighth-Graders-Bash, where the snacks were abundant and the dance floor was nearly bare.

Thirteen-year-old Andy Kanker, wearing a nice short sleeve white button down shirt, tan slacks and a red and white stripped tie, surveyed the dimly lit gym with a cup of punch in his hand. His hair was pushed off his face, finally revealing the eyes he constantly hid from his classmates. He wanted to smush his hair back down over his eyes, but knew his mom and sisters would be disappointed that they messed up his hair that they worked so hard to make look nice so he left it be, although he kept spotting girls from his class pointing at him and giggling amongst themselves and twirling strands of their hair when they realized that he was looking at them before looking away, embarrassed. Most of those girls normally wouldn't even look his way when his hair covered his eyes, the fact that he suddenly was appealing to them due to his eyes pissed him off.

He quickly decided to ignore the giggling girls and see how his friends and family were doing. He glanced around the gym, the place was covered in pink and purple balloons and like colored streamers, a few disco balls were set up by the DJ's booth and most of the pre-teens were spaced out into three groups: the 'dancers', which was the smallest group, with the 'awkwardly-waiting-for-someone-to-dance-with-by-the-wall-ers' and the group of kids near the snack table in an effort to drown out the awkwardness of the situation by chugging countless cups of punch making up the rest of the populace in the gym.

He didn't know why this thing was even being held, if they really wanted to celebrate the eldest students in the school's graduation, finishing their last middle school finals and elevation to high school, Andy felt as if he and his fellow students deserved something a little snazzier than a stupid awkward school dance…

But then again, considering all the property damage he'd helped cause for the past three years, this party was probably the only thing they could manage to afford to give him and his classmates as a send off.

He shrugged at the thought and sipped some more punch, hoping it might help his throat a little so he wouldn't be as pitchy as he had been all day. His voice had been going from its normal, shrill tone to super deep like his dad's and back again and it was driving him _nuts_. Seriously! He could hardly go a whole sentence without his voice going up and down like a friggin' rollercoaster!

When he had first heard it this morning, he thought he was getting a sore throat or something, but by the time his mom and sisters forced him into nice clothes for this dance, he figured that his voice was _finally_ changing. And while he was pleased that puberty was finally kicking in, he wasn't eager to let anyone hear his cracking voice right now.

He had kept his mouth shut all night, just so no one would hear it and make fun of him, like they did to anyone whose voices and bodies began to change. The only exception to that was Sheldon, and that was only because he made a joke out of it himself, laughing as his voice went from low to high, even singing horribly off key on purpose with his cracking voice to make a few other boys going through the same thing chuckle, the fact that his voice stopped cracking within two weeks and stayed at it's new low tone was actually a downer to the other boys, but Sheldon still cheered them up as best he could, even though it wasn't as funny when he sang for them anymore. Allbert, surprisingly, _had_ been teased, although it was mainly by Ty and his friends, Tim and Tom, since Allbert had stood up for the other boys who were going through it and they paid him the same courtesy, his voice started changing right after Sheldon's and had finally adhered to its new, deep voice, that sounded much likeUncle Larie's, after they finished their tests… Ty, Tim and Tom all tried to tease him about his changing voice after the last bell rang, only to stop in surprise as their voices dropped and rose in tone, leaving Double-L to reply in his new voice, "Ah, the sweet sound of _Karma_." And made Andy roar with laughter while Sheldon glanced around to find whatever 'Karma' was, curious as to how something could sound 'sweet'.

Speaking of Sheldon… Andy spotted him on the mostly bare dance floor, wearing a gray button down shirt and a pink tie with an anchor on it under his favorite green jacket and wore pink pants with blue anchors on them (the tie and pants being hand-me-downs from his dad, apparently) and tennis shoes as he spun two of their friends, Leela, who was a sweet little girl with neon green hair and was wearing a poofy, sparkly pink dress and had her hair in a braid, and Maggie, who was totally head over heels for his blonde haired cousin and was wearing a nice white cowl neck sweater (much different than her normal oversized gray ones) and a slightly shorter brown skirt than she normally did and had her wildly curly black hair pulled up in a bun. Both girls were smiling and obviously having as much fun as Sheldon was as lifted them up and began spinning them in the air, loudly naming the dance, "SPIN MODE! DRYER EDITION!" making the girls laugh along with him.

Tim, a short young man (shorter than Andy, even) with a shorter temper, crazy strength and a thing for poor, gentle little Leela, scowled as he watched Sheldon dance with the two girls, grinding his teeth as he clenched his fists.

Tim had tried to snag Leela from Sheldon earlier, nearly socking him in the face, but luckily, one of the chaperones, a family friend of the Kanker family, (Author: Yo.) snatched Leela away from him, gave her back to Sheldon and snappishly informed him that if he tried anything like that tonight, he'd be spending the rest of the dance on the front steps of the school in a straight jacket with his shoelaces tied together and that he'd stay there until Leela was safely home.

Tim had been glaring at the three dancing fools from the sidelines ever since, occasionally turning to the chaperone and flipping her off with a snarl on his face. Andy smirked triumphantly at the guy's jealous expression, even though it was obvious as to _why_ Leela was dancing with Maggie and Sheldon:

Reason Number 1: She, like everyone in the entire town but Sheldon and the men in Maggie's family, knew how much she liked the blonde Kanker and that she was really shy, so she probably was sticking around so Maggie wouldn't faint from bliss just by seeing him wearing a button down shirt. (Author's note: It had happened before on school picture day.)

Reason Number 2: She knew that Sheldon matched Tim's strength and would gladly protect her if Tim became too wild and aggressive in his pursuit of her again, not that he'd ever hurt her before, but Leela had seen an aftermath of one of his rampages and was too terrified of the result to take any chances with the boy.

Andy then glanced over at Allbert, who being the gentleman he was, had been inviting each girl who was either sitting on the bleachers or waiting for someone by the wall to dance, not wanting anyone to feel left out. He currently was slow dancing with a rather large girl who smiled at him gratefully as he conversed with her. He wore a white collared button down short sleeved shirt with a brown vest and one of his school ties and brown slacks, his blue hair was styled so both of his eyes were visible and his classic black ski cap sat upon his neat blue haired head.

"Hey Andy!" a familiar voice called, he turned to see two of his friends, Laura, a spunky gal who preferred solving problems with her fists, and Matilda, a hacker who enjoyed watching Laura solve problems with her fists, smiling at him eagerly. The two would often team up and try to make Allbert uncomfortable by flirting with him (pissing Tom off to no end) and Matilda would often go the extra mile of invading his personal space to do so, but despite their devious delight over getting Allbert Kanker flustered, they were actually good friends with the three Kanker cousins.

"What's UP?" he asked, trying hard not to wince as his voice cracked.

"Apparently your voice." Laura teased.

"It's JUst a coLD." Andy fibbed.

"Uh huh, sure it is." Matilda snickered.

"What are you two up to?" Andy said in a flat tone, pleased that his voice didn't crack that time, although his voice hit a spot in between that made him sound like his classmate and sort-of-friend, Matt Lane, who was chatting with Madeline and another friend of theirs, Lorna, in the corner of the gym.

"We saw what Double-L was doing and thought we'd do some of the guys on the bench a favor." Laura said with a smirk. She wore a green dress with a brown vest, that was only a little darker than her skin color, her curly red hair pulled underneath her favorite green hat, the ends of her hair poking out from the back.

"So, wanna dance?" Matilda teased, twirling strands of her long silver hair in her fingers and pouting at him, pretending to be coy. She wore a purple dress that matched her glasses with a black belt wrapped around her stomach, the dark color standing out against her pale skin.

"FiRSt of ALl, I cAN geT Any giRL heRe I wanT, So I dON't neED Yer CHARity." He said snappishly, annoyed at the accusation that he was on the bench because he couldn't ask a girl to dance. Cause he totally could! And continued on to say that, "I dON't dANce." He was pleased that the lie easily rolled off of his tongue and only wished that his voice had done that at the end of his statement. "I onLY came to kEEp TrIPLe THReat fRom wreCKIng eVERyONe's fun." He further explained, leaving out the fact that his mom and sisters guilt tripped him into coming by telling him how hurt Allbert and Sheldon would be if they didn't go celebrate with everyone else and that he was probably one of the best dancers in the school, because, just like he didn't want people in school to hear him sing or any girls to see his eyes, he didn't want people in school to know how much of a Momma's and sisters' boy he was (Author: they all know, everyone in town knows, they're all just smart enough not to insult him about it) or that he danced.

"Uh huh." Matilda replied with an impish grin on her face, "_Sure_ you did, I bet your sisters had nothing to do with you coming here."

"HEy, lAy oFF my siSTers!" he snapped back, half serious, half playful. Even if he knew she was joking, he never liked it when someone implied anything negative about his sisters.

"Alright, alright!" Laura chuckled, holding up her hands in surrender, "we'll move on, it's your loss though!" she cried as she and Matilda bounded toward the lonely boys along the wall.

Andy glanced over at Tom, who brightened at the sight of Laura approaching the row of seats he was sitting in, only to frown when she pulled a wheelchair bound classmate out from the row and pushed him out into the middle of the gym to dance with her while Matilda pulled a boy with head gear onto the gym floor to dance. Andy watched Tom for a moment, just in case he tried anything, but looked away when the guy sighed and looked at Laura with a hurt, wistful expression on his face as he watched her dance with another.

Andy was grateful that Tom was the more passive of the trio and would sit on the sideline and watch from afar instead of trying to cause a scene like Tim or Ty would in this situation, it didn't mean he couldn't be as aggressive as his friends, but it was in these situations that Andy was pleased to see Tom act more like a sad, lovesick puppy than a crazy stalker…

Speaking of crazy stalkers…

Andy scanned the room until he found Ty, who was sitting on the other side of the room, pouting as he occasionally glanced over at Lorna Griffin, who was wearing a simple blue party dress and was nervously adjusting her big round glasses on her face, her long black hair pulled up into a huge braid that reminded Andy of his Aunt Double-N's hair when it was braided. She was chatting with Madeline (or Maddie as he called her) and Matt Lane, who Lorna had a crush on, much to Ty's chagrin. Tom and Tim had it a bit easier since the girls they liked didn't really have crushes, but Ty was readying himself for a jealousy fueled rampage and Andy decided to keep his eye on the trouble-making tween, especially since the guy was probably not only gonna try to beat the tar outta Lane, but because he'd try to push his unwanted affections on his friend and Andy wasn't gonna let any stunt he tried to pull slide, especially not tonight.

Lorna was actually a very good friend of Andy's, which was seen as odd by others since they really didn't have much in common nor did they hang out very often or do much together (if you didn't count yanking Ty off of her almost every day), but no one ever questioned as to why they were friends. Honestly, even Andy didn't even know how they managed to become and stay friends for as long as they had been, they were both often blunt with one another, and easily pointed out the other's flaws or why they were wrong without hesitation or any consideration to their surroundings or feelings on the matter. But because of this, they knew a lot about one another and had someone outside their usual circle to go to for advise or just to vent.

Ty got up from his seat as Lane politely excused himself to go to get some punch, after asking the ladies if they'd like some too and being turned down, he left the two girls alone. Andy and Madeline silently locked eyes and nodded before Andy began strolling towards the snack table as well. Now, while Andy and Madeline really weren't friends and didn't get along very well, when it came to Ty and Lorna, they managed to not argue and simply get the job done, although, a good part of that was due to Madeline comforting Lorna and calling for her driver to pick them up to take her home to get cleaned up while Andy shouted at Ty and beat the stuffing out of him for whatever stunt he just pulled. Now, Andy was often pretty good about patching Lorna up after taking care of Ty and taking her home, however, he often told her to call either Leela, Laura, Maggie, Matilda, Madeline or a lawyer for a restraining order. (they never were able to go through due to Ty's family's lawyers, but Andy always suggested that she do it 'just in case ya finally catch a break') for words of comfort since he wouldn't even know where to start to make her feel any better other than, 'okay, he's gone' or 'well, he won't be able to move for a while' or 'don't worry, he's still breathing.'

Madeline began addressing stray hairs and the girl's nerves while Andy watched Lane served himself a ladle full of punch and Ty come up behind him, his jealously so potent that it was practically poring out of his pores and following him like Pepé Le Pew's stench as he crept up beside him and asked if he could pour him a cup too.

Lane seemed surprised that Ty had popped up out of nowhere, but kindly handed him his own full cup and reached for a new one to fill up for himself, not noticing Ty's forced polite smile shift into an angry snarl as he bent his knees, readying himself for a pounce to launch his prey to the ground so he could start pounding him before he could do anything to defend himself… Only for Andy to slip between them and ask, in his cracking voice, if Lane wouldn't mind topping him off. Not only stopping Ty from mauling him, but making him realize that his arch-enemy, Andy Kanker's voice was cracking and it was _hilarious!_

"What's the matter, Kanker?" Ty snickered, "Swallow a dog toy?"

Andy turned to look up at him, unimpressed by the insult, allowing Ty to see his eyes for the first time and to soak in his appearance without his hair blocking his face… Distracting him for a moment while Andy took the opportunity to kick him hard in the shin, making him yelp out in pain and fall onto the floor.

"What's the matter, McCallister?" Andy replied, his voice stayed deep like his father's as he smirked impishly at him, pleased that his voice wasn't cracking, "Lose a fight with gravity?" Ty snarled at him as he nursed his bruised shin, Lane, who had been completely oblivious to what just happened between the two (probably due to witnessing something similar everyday for the past eight years) and handed the two their punch and asked Ty if he needed any help. Ty snapped a quick, "_no thanks._" Before limping over to the bleachers again, his punch in hand.

Lane shrugged and chatted with Andy a bit about his voice, which began cracking again, much to his frustration, and then politely excused himself to the bathroom.

Then Madeline, who had been conversing with the other girls, four of whom had pulled themselves away from their dance partners to join them, walked over to him, "Did you get rid of Ty?" she asked in a conspiratorial tone, as if they hadn't done something like this a million times before.

Andy gave her a look that said, 'excuse you, did you forget who you are talking to right now?' and indicated the frustrated green haired tween who was leaning against the wall, he then gave her an annoyed look when he noticed a blush on her cheeks as she finally realized what had been different about him that night (his eyes). He cleared his throat, snapping her out of the trace she had fallen into and she quickly shook her head, her face still flushed as she tried to regain her composure, after all, they weren't friends, in fact she barely managed to restrain herself from strangling him at least once a week, if she couldn't keep it together at the sight of his eyes then who would?

She quickly puffed up her chest and helped herself to a cookie, "G-good" she said, obviously still a little flustered, but she managed to rid herself of it when she explained that, "Because Lorna _finally_ is going to tell Matt how she feels."

Andy looked at her, surprised, "You SEriOUs?" he said, scowling a bit that his voice was still cracking, but a teeny bit grateful that it make her snicker a bit and allowed her to no longer be effected by his eyes as she replied, "Yeah, I know, right? You know where he went? I want them to get together before Ty manages to mess everything up."

"WHat mAKeS You thINk _thAT _wilL HapPEn?" he asked, smirking a bit before she scowled at him like she usually did and put her hands on her hips, "_Andy Kanker where is Matt Lane_?" she demanded to know. Now, normally if Maddie demanded he tell her something, Andy would walk past her with a shake of his head, his hands in his pockets and a triumphant smile on his face as he chuckled and scoffed, "Yeah, good luck with that, Maddie." But this was so Lorna could finally admit to Lane that she liked him, something she'd been dying to tell him since first grade, so…

"BatHROom," Andy answered immediately, thumbing back towards the double doors leading out into the hall and the bathrooms.

Her frown grew as she looked at the doorway before she slowly looked at the red haired Kanker before her, curious, as if wondering if he would be willing to do something…

And Andy had a feeling what this 'something' was.

"nO." Andy squeaked with a serious expression, "I aM _Not_ FOlloWIng ANotHEr duDE iNTo thE BathROom, MAddIe!" he hissed to the best of his abilities. Madeline's frown grew and her eye twitched, but she didn't snap at him about calling her 'Maddie' again, and instead, grabbed his shoulders and turned him towards Lorna, who was standing in the corner of the room, the other girls dancing nearby and taking turns checking on her with concerned expressions as she looked back and forth, anxiously searching through the room between glances at her shoes, her eyes wide and her pose radiating unease and discomfort as the hope in her eyes began to dim.

Andy looked at his friend, then glared up at Madeline, "YoU OWe mE _Big_." He groaned, officially annoyed by his ever-changing voice. (Author: you ain't the only one, Andy.)

She squealed with delight before racing over towards Lorna, the other girls seeing this and rushing over to join the two while Andy grumbled to himself about how he couldn't believe he was about to help Maddie play match maker… then he grumbled about how annoying this whole voice change thing was and how he hoped it would end as soon as friggin' possible cause he was so done with this crap.

He made his way through the crowd and exited the double doors and headed towards the bathroom, still grumbling under his breath. When he finally got to the boy's bathroom and began pushing the door open, he found himself face to face with Matt Lane, who apologized and moved out of the way for him to pass him into the bathroom, "THanKS." Andy cawed, then scowled, all this cracking was gonna drive him _nuts_!

"Yeah, the transition sucks." Lane commented with an understanding laugh, "but from what I've heard, we have it pretty easy compared to the girls."

"YEAh… hEy, SPeakIng oF girLS, LOrnA wAS looKIn' foR 'yA." Andy said, grateful that Lane brought up a topic that would allow Andy to mention his bespeckled friend without it coming across as awkward… well, _less_ awkward with his voice going up and down like an elevator on the fritz.

"Why?"

"I DunNO, I'M NoT a minDREadeR."

"Oh, well, my Mom called me a minute ago and said she's outside ready to pick me up."

"YoU goInG somEWherE?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be with my Uncle at his European Villa all summer and my flight leaves in about an hour and a half," he explained, then sheepishly added, "I have to leave right now, so would you mind telling her that I'm sorry and that I'll call her as soon as I get to my uncle's?"

"… SurE, mAn, I GoT it." Andy said calmly, waiting until Matt smiled, thanked him profusely and left before letting the mask of indifference shatter and swearing under his breath before gripping the sides of the sink and taking a deep breath.

He was going to have to tell his friend that not only had the guy she was going to confess her feelings for just leave, but he was going to be out of the country all summer.

He sucked in another breath, then let it slowly escape his mouth in a long huff before pushing away from the sink and making his way back to the gym to give his friend the bad news. And while he was just as pleased to do this as he was to get a root canal or a hernia, it was better if it came from him than from Ty while he pinned the girl to the floor or from Maddie, who would probably manage to get her and the other girls all worked up before even getting to the part where he was going to be in Europe all summer.

He stopped at the doors, deciding to come out the door closer to where Lorna was earlier, figuring that it would probably be best if he told her in private other than going through this door and having to explain what happened to the other girls and having them get her all worked up and make it harder for him to tell her why Lane left the party early.

He walked solemnly to the single door to the gym further down the hall, muttering multiple ways he could break the news to her, but since his words were better suited for confrontation than comforting, he found himself standing in front of the single door before he had found a gentle way to break the news to her. He stood there for another moment before deciding to just give it to her straight, figuring that in cases like these that it was best to just get it over with as quickly as possible, like ripping off a band-aid. The girls could comfort her afterwards and she could come up with a new game plan for telling Lane how she felt.

He took another deep breath and looked reluctantly at the door, "hERe gOeS." He squeaked before pushing the door open and glanced around for his tall friend, "Lorna?" he called, too focused on the task at hand to realize that he sounded like Lane again…

.

.

.

Lorna waited patiently for Matthew Lane to return from the bathroom by the back corner of the gym, her friends urging her to wait under the bleachers so Ty wouldn't see them, Madeline saying that she'd wait by the double doors and tell Matthew to use the door farther down the hall that opened up close to where she was now standing.

She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and her hands were sweating like crazy. She wasn't sure if she could even go through with this… She then stiffened stubbornly.

No. She always did this to herself! She always promised herself that she'd tell him how she felt and then chickened out, making up excuses for herself and pretending with all her might that it wasn't because of her own cowardice.

She had asked the other girls to help her and Madeline had even pulled Andy into this, she couldn't back down now, Andy would never let her hear the end of it if he had been dragged into playing matchmaker by Madeline only for her to chicken out at the last minute.

She heard the door open and a voice call out, "Lorna?"

It was Matthew's voice.

She stiffened, determined.

It was the moment of truth.

She took off her glasses, remembering what Madeline had said earlier about her eyes being much prettier when she took off her glasses (although it made it harder for her to see) "He won't be able to say no to those eyes!" Lorna sucked in a breath then turned around and yanked the boy in front of the doorway by the collar of his shirt to join her under the bleachers with her, cry out, "I love you, Matthew!" and press her lips against his…

Only for her to feel someone yank her and the boy apart, she heard a thump and saw the blur she had kissed hit the ground before she felt someone shove her glasses back on. Once her glasses were in their proper place, they revealed that the one who ripped her and her blurry boy apart, Ty, who looked both angry and heartbroken as he panted and looked from her towards the blurry boy she kissed…

Lorna's heart fell when she saw that it was not Matthew Lane who she had kissed, but…

_**Andy Kanker.**_

He looked at her with beautiful blue eyes filled with confusion, horror and pity, body contorted on the floor as if he was going to crawl away from her like a crab, his wrist just under his lips, but if it was to protect them from further unexpected kisses or if it was to wipe them off, she couldn't say. In fact, she couldn't _say_ anything, her emotions were swirling too fast in her mind to allow words to form.

Ty and Andy seemed to be in the same boat, since the three of them were silent except for Ty's loud panting.

Until he roared and tackled Andy so they rolled out from under the bleachers, the tall boy punching the short one for a minute until they stopped with him pinning the red-haired Kanker and punched him in the face before he snapped out of it and fought back, their cousins and friends quickly jumping into the fray while the rest of the class quickly retreated from the gym, Leela and Laura dragging a still stunned Lorna from the room.

.

.

.

A week had passed since the disaster of a dance had passed, the battle of the Kanker cousins and Ty and his friends had destroyed the gym, but the rest of the school was luckily undamaged.

Lorna hadn't seen Andy since then, but she had gotten a call from Matthew, who explained everything to her, despite believing that Andy already explained everything to her, and they promised to talk to one another over the phone once a week over the summer.

Lorna, unfortunately, _did_ see Ty since the dance, but he kept his distance and looked at her with a hurt expression on his face. While she felt awful about it, Laura and Leela were envious of her that her stalker was leaving her alone, because Tom and Tim were as obnoxiously persistant as ever towards them.

Lorna walked around town aimlessly, finally untangling the last of her thoughts from the week before. Once she finished, she ironically found herself near the Kanker Cousin's cul-de-sac.

She even spotted Andy's sisters playing outside with a blonde girl their age and, at that moment, decided to discuss what happened with Andy and apologize for her actions. After all, because of her actions, Andy, Allbert, Sheldon, Ty, Tim, and Tom ended up in yet another fist fight and destroyed the gym and the six of them probably got in trouble for it…

She sucked in a breath and walked down the street and spotted several other children racing around the neighborhood, laughing and squealing. She quickened her pace towards Andy's sisters, she wasn't too fond of younger children and didn't want to stay out in the open too long and risk being forced into one of their games.

Once she made it to Andy's sisters, she inquired if he was home. The moment she asked, the two pink haired girls' beautiful blue eyes suddenly became sharp and defensive, surprising her, "Who wants to know?" they challenged in creepy unison.

"L-Lorna Griffin, I'm a friend from school."

The twins' eyes narrowed at the name and they quietly walked over to her and circled around her, as if inspecting her. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, they both stopped in front of her, looked at one another, nodded, then pointed towards a house with a red door, "He's been grounded for breaking the school gym, so he's inside." One said.

"The door is unlocked. He's on the second floor, first door to the left." the other added.

Lorna nodded in understanding and the two went back to their blonde friend, who looked at Lorna with a curious expression, which she took as her cue to leave.

She entered the house, feeling weird about entering another person's home without them being there with her as she closed the door and climbed up the steps and knocked on the first door on the left, "Andy?"

Silence.

"It's Lorna."

"No duh." A deep voice called from the other side of the door, surprising Lorna, it sounded more like his dad than her friend, in fact, if he hadn't responded like he had, she would have thought his father had answered her instead. She shook off the shock from the change in his voice, and asked, "Can I talk to you?"

"Go for it." he said flatly.

"In person." She clarified.

"No thanks." He instantly replied.

"I'm not gonna kiss you again, if that's what you're worried about." Lorna promised, "So will you please come out and talk to me?"

She heard a groan and footsteps from the other side and the door opened to her red-haired friend… whose face was covered in acne and a white cream. Andy took one look at her expression and said, "And now ya know why I wanted to keep the door closed." He said bitterly.

"Sorry…" She said, bowing her head a bit, "I'm sorry about what happened at the dance too, I should have kept my glasses on and I shouldn't have grabbed you and…" she tried saying it, only to find herself unable to. She tried again, but the same thing happened. Andy watched her with a half bored expression for a minute more before sighing and saying, "Don't worry about it, it was an accident. I'm just sorry you confessed to the wrong guy… Did he call ya like he said he would?"

"Yeah…"

"Good, cause it's the least the jerk can do for getting me into that mess." He said plainly, making her chuckle at his comment. He waited until she calmed down before saying, "Now that we both said we're sorry, can we pretend that never happened?"

Lorna smiled gratefully, "Fine with me." She said, the weight of last week's incident finally off her shoulders as she descended down the steps, stopping on the last one before looking back at her friend and asking, "Want me to forget your acne too?"

"Fine by me." He replied with a smile as he leaned against his bedroom door. She nodded warmly and left with a confident smile.

Andy waited until she was no longer in sight before walking back into his room and opening his bedroom window to find Ty hanging from a branch with a make-shift hearing device that Tom had most likely crafted for him.

"If that thing is anywhere near being as good as Double-L's, I'm guessing you heard everything?"

"Yeah." Ty confirmed.

"Good. Now stop following me, ya Creep!" Andy snapped before grabbing the end of the branch Ty was clinging to and wobbled it so Ty would lose balance, fall off and crash into Andy's backyard.

Andy seemed to relax as Ty shouted swears up at him, that incident had bugged him more than he knew it should have, but now that it was all settled… he smiled impishly as he grabbed his fencing blade, the handle shaped like a swordfish, something he had insisted when he was little so it would look like his dad's, and raced down the steps. After all the anxiety he had gotten from that dance, he could use a little stress relief and he just so happened to have a convenient punching bag flop into his backyard.


	9. Study Aid (Allbert, Laura and Tom)

Ten year old Laura Garcia groaned as she spread out her textbooks and notebooks on the dining room table, occasionally shooting glares at her triumphant mother, who had decided to make cookies, was happily placing a tray full of cookie dough into the oven.

It was a lovely Saturday morning, and instead of being outside and enjoying it, she had felt her mother's wrath after she found the bad report card Laura had worked _so_ hard to hide. After thoroughly scolding her daughter for ignoring her studies, her fuming mother gave her an ultimatium: that she get tutoring from either Allbert Kanker or her ex-childhood friend and now sometimes stalker, Tom Goldstein, or she wouldn't see natural sunlight ever again until her grades went up. Now, her best friends, Lorna and Leela, were also very smart girls, and her friends Madeline, Matilda and Maggie were pretty clever too, but her mother probably assumed that they would start playing around instead of studying if she gave Laura the option of choosing them… and she'd be right, they probably would end up goofing around instead of studying.

So, left with no other option, she said she'd ask Double-L if he could tutor her on Monday. Her mother gave her a stern look before walking into the kitchen and picking up their house phone and began dialing, Laura watched her mother, silently horrified, as she spoke cheerfully into the receiver, "Hi, Ann, it's Angelica! How are you?... Oh, I'm not doing as well, I'm afraid… Oh no, nothing like that! Everyone is alright! It's," she sighed, "You see, apparently Laura is at risk of being held back a year and needs a good tutor… Really? He would? That's wonderful! Do you think he could start this morning? Laura needs all the help she can get... Really?...He babysits all three of them all by himself? That's incredible! My eldest, Gabriel, can barely watch himself… Say, why don't you drop them all off here? I can watch the little ones while he tutors Laura... Hmn?... Oh, don't worry about that! My husband and sons left for a soccer game and won't be back until two and it's not like I don't take care of five children everyday… well, actually it's more like six if you count my husband… Alright then! I'll see you in a half an hour!" she then hung up the phone and looked at her only daughter with a big smile on her face, "Good news! It seems as though Allbert can start tutoring you today! Why don't you get all of your school stuff on the table while I go get the high chair from the basement?" Laura was confused for a moment, wondering why her mother would need a high chair… until she remembered that Double-Ls brothers and sister were a lot younger than him, so the high chair was probably necessary.

Laura set about grabbing her school junk from upstairs while her mom brought an obviously well worn high chair and began it wiping down and humming happily.

The doorbell rang and her mother's face brightened as her own face fell, "That must be them!" her mother sang as she skipped to the door and opened it, Laura dragging her feet behind her mother to greet their guests, "Welcome! Welcome! We're so glad you're here!"

"Thank you for having us." Double-L said from the doorway, his school backpack on and side door of his family's van open, his mother's back to them and his father's upper body disappearing into the interior of the van, most likely unbuckling the little ones and gathering them in their arms.

"I thought you would have helped your mom and dad get the little ones out of the car." Laura said plainly.

"Normally I would, but I felt it was my duty to inform you that Tom is currently sitting under your kitchen window with a listening device."

"Huh, so he's early today." Laura replied coolly. Tom, had been coming over to watch her do whatever she did at home every Saturday, usually starting at noon and stopping after a few hours when her friends came over, most likely to inform his friends that they were all together and come up with some way to capture them.

Double-L nodded in confirmation as his parents joined him on her front step. His thin mother had her long black hair pulled back into a pony tail that cascaded past her waist and had a blue-haired toddler, wearing a purple blouse and a pink skirt and holding a stuffed cream-colored bunny, curled up in her arms as she gave Laura's mom a grateful gap-toothed smile, "Thank you so much for watching them in our stead…" she began, only for Angelica to wave her off and usher them into their home, "Oh, please, I should be thanking you! Laura needs all the help she can get and having someone like Allbert here to help her is a God-send. Plus, I enjoy having little ones around the house! It reminds me of when my children were little!"

"Still, you have no idea how much this helps us out," Double-L's buff and blue haired father replied, holding twin young black haired boys in his arms, "All is a responsible kid and takes good care of Larry, Terry and Milly, but we always feel a lot better when we know he's not taking care of them alone…"

"So cute…" Laura finally murmured, her eyes going from Mildred to Larry and Terry and back, capturing everyone's attentions, then blushing when the adults chuckled a bit, making her she realize that she had said that out loud. No one noticing that Tom had moved along the side of the house to see why Double-L was at the house and heard her statement and caught a glimpse of Laura blushing in front of Double-L, who looked a little amused. Tom snarled at the blue-haired boy before him, was Allbert 'Double-L' Kanker trying to steal Laura's heart by being her bright knight in shining armor and save her from having to repeat a grade? (which he, in fact, came here to do himself) He wasn't gonna let that happen! He growled and crept around the house towards the dining room window, where he had heard Laura's mom tell her to put her school stuff and assumed that would be where he would tutor her.

Laura was so embarrassed, she couldn't_ believe _she had just blurted that out, but she couldn't help it! They were just _so_ _**cute**_! Every time she saw them in the photos Double-L showed to his classmates, sitting in their car seats in the back of the van and would smile at the sight of their brother and reach for him when he was getting picked up from school, and when his parents came into parent-teacher conferences, bringing the little ones along and leaving the elder Kanker children to watch them, she would melt at the sight of them, they were just. So. Unbelievably. _**CUTE**_!

"Yes, well, Mother and Father dressed the twins up so you could easily tell them apart while we're intruding," Double-L said, trying to lessen her embarrassment, he indicated one of the twins, who was wearing a red t-shirt and purple pants, "This is Larry." Larry flushed a bit and retreated into his father's chest before managing to say, "Hello…" Allbert then indicated to the remaining twin, who was wearing a red t-shirt and green pants, "This is Terry." Terry turned a little pink and tugged his father's shirt to hide himself as well as he said, "Hi…" He then indicated the toddler and said, "And you all know Mildred." Mildred smiled vibrantly at Laura and reached for her, laughing.

"Aww…" Laura and her mother said in unison as Dr. Ann carefully passed her two-year-old daughter to Angelica and Mr. Larie carefully placed his four-year-old boys on the ground so they were standing beside their brother, who's hands they took immediately and clung to as if their lives depended on it as they looked at their hosts with wide eyes filled with uncertainty, uncomfortable to be around them without their parents present, as many four year olds would be.

"Now you all be good for Ms. Angelica, alright?" their mother said softly, the boys nodded while their sister simply laughed vibrantly to her mother's query, their father chuckling as he ruffled his children's hair and added, "Yeah, no acting crazy, alright?" After the family exchanged kisses and hugs, their parents waved good bye and reminded them to be good and went into their van and drove off, thanking Laura's mother again for watching the younger ones as they passed.

"Where are your parents even going, the moon?" Laura teased as she playfully punched the eldest Kanker child of the four in the arm.

"They're going to the grocery store and running a few errands, after this we're going to visit my grandparents." Double-L replied coolly as he rubbed the spot her fist had landed on his arm, even though it didn't hurt.

"Seriously? All those 'be good's, hugs and kisses for a couple of errands?" Laura asked, both astounded and amused.

"You should see what happens when April and Sheldon leave for school everyday," Double-L replied with a playful grin before looking up to Angelica and indicated his backpack, "My younger brothers are halfway done on a project of theirs, would it be alright if they worked in the kitchen?"

Angelica smiled and lead the children into the kitchen, "Sure, you can set their things up on the kitchen table right there." She offered, motioning towards it before settling Mildred into the old high chair, carefully adjusting it to hold the toddler in place.

"Thank you." Double-L said as he walked his brothers over to the table, helped them onto the chairs and then began pulling out a laptop, a few hand tools, screws, wires, and chunks of machinery and a box that he opened to reveal what almost looked like a ten inch metal spider and placed them all on the table in front of them, shocking Laura and her mother as the little ones began tinkering with thin strips of metal and the screws and starting up the laptop immediately after saying, "Thank you, Allbert."

Double-L smiled at his brothers and gently tussled their hair and gave them each a kiss on the cheek (which surprised Laura, since she had never witnessed any of her brothers gave each other kisses on the cheek, so this kinda thing was new to her) before turning to Laura and her mother and gave them a grateful gap-toothed smile and a small, respectful bow, "Thank you, my parents and I did most of the more complex work, but the rest should keep them occupied for a while, so they shouldn't be any trouble." He explained. Then he handed his backpack to Angelica, "I also have some of Mildred's diapers, wipes, a few toys, her pacifier and a spit up rag in here if you need it." he said, Laura and her mother looked at one another, impressed, before she took his bag and said, "Thank you, Allbert, this saves me a few trips downstairs to get my kids old toys up here." He smiled and nodded before giving his younger sister a kiss, making her squeal with delight, and motioned for Laura to show him where they would be working with a, "Shall we begin?"

Laura led Double-L into the dining room and they began studying, although it was hard to focus when there were three little cuties next door in the kitchen that she could play with instead of math problems she had to solve.

.

Tom sat under the dining room window, listening intently, fuming as he thought of all the better methods he would have used to teach her the material.

Now if Ty and Tim were here, they'd be urging him to sneak in and somehow lead Double-L outside and lock the blue-haired Kanker out, but out of the three of them, Tom was the most rational. He knew Ms. Angelica wouldn't let him disrupt Laura and Double-L's study time, nor would he want to upset the three young Kankers in the kitchen, because while he and Double-L weren't the best of friends, his younger siblings had done him no wrong and he was actually quite fond of them himself. Tom and his older siblings had helped Double-L watch his younger siblings while waiting for their fathers' classes to finish at the university more than once. To be honest, if it weren't for his belief that Double-L was interested in Laura, he had a feeling that he could actually become quite good friends with him.

But, alas, that was not the case.

Tom watched her eyes lose focus on the page while Double-L droned on and on, Tom tugged at his hair in frustration that his rival didn't seem to notice that his student was steadily losing focus… only to feel the still damp gel he used to tame the wild curls that sprung from his scalp squish between his fingers and wince as he began smoothing out his hair again. When he was younger, his natural violet curls, lack of much physical strength and intellect made him the target of ridicule from local bullies… until Laura moved in when he was four and a half.

She told off the bullies and acted almost like a personal bodyguard as well as his best friend, they were inseparable and that's when Tom realized that he liked her liked her. So when he went to sleep away camp the next year, he decided to change himself, to become tougher, stronger, someone who could protect her. He began putting gel in his hair to make himself less of a target, he began working so he could be physically strong as well as mentally strong, that's when he met Ty and Tim. They became friends and when they came back, Tom was sure that Laura would be impressed by his appearance and strength…

Only for Laura to seem confused and almost hurt by his new look and attitude, they still played but, no longer as often as they used to, since Tom now had more friends to play with and would be invited over to Ty or Tim's house for play dates, leaving Laura alone… But they were still friends… until her sixth birthday party that she had right before their first day of first grade, she invited Tom and even Ty and Tim, probably because she wanted them all to be close friends and that way she could join them instead of watching Tom hop into his parents' car to go to one of their houses while she stayed at home with her brothers. It was a laser tag party, Tom had found himself cornered by Laura's brothers only for Laura to save him, Tim and Ty spotted this and teased him about having to have a girl save him. That's when he snapped that he didn't need some freakishly strong _tomboy_ saving him.

At that moment, their fragile friendship shattered.

Tom had tried everything he could to get her to forgive him, he apologized, he made her gifts, he waited outside her house for a week before school started, hoping she would talk to him when she realized that he would stay there until she talked to him, but the damage had been done. Ty and Tim, who realized what they had done to mess up their relationship, began offering to help him try to get her back, Tom, who couldn't think of anything more he could do to get her to forgive him, took them up on that offer and the rest, as they say, was history.

"Laura? Are you listening?" he heard Double-L ask his beloved from inside. Both Tom and Laura jumped at his words, startled and Tom watched as Laura gave her tutor a sheepish and apologetic grin as Double-L scowled at her, leaving Laura to guess that her reaction answered his question, "Sorry, Double-L." She murmured. The Kanker stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled impishly, which was odd to see on the Kanker cousins who had been deemed by all the kids in school to be the 'Peach Creek Elementary's Gentleman', and asked in a teasing tone, "…You want to play with my younger siblings, don't you?"

"_**They're just SO FRIGGIN' CUTE**_!" she blurted, throwing her arms out as if to further emphasize how cute they were, "How can you even think straight with those precious little angels around?!"

"Well, for one thing, I live with them, so while I find them to be delightfully adorable and endearing little creatures, I also have to deal with their not-so-sweet behaviors, screaming, crying, explosions…"

"Did you just say _explosions_?"

"Yes, but I digress, you want to know how I manage to concentrate around them?" Laura nodded eagerly and leaned in to hear his words better, "Well, I usually do my homework during their nap time so I can make sure that something that they are doing doesn't distract me, I also do a lot of projects where I involve my brothers, usually making something to entertain our little sister."

"So the spider is…?"

"That is a gift for our mother, a sort of security-slash-surveillance device that can move freely through the house and help where needed."

"Okay… but you still haven't told me how you manage to not get distracted by them."

"That wasn't your question," He replied coolly, "you asked how I managed to think straight around them, you never asked how I avoid getting distracted by them, because honestly, I often have to stop what I'm doing to either help them or address to a problem they're having, but when I'm finished, I often get right back to work."

Tom, who had been sitting underneath the window, bit back a growl at the blue haired Kanker's reply, annoyed at his playful response to her question.

Laura found his reply to be somewhat condescending and snarled at the smart aleck, "Well, how do you do _that_?" she snapped.

"Well, I do that because I know that if I don't do it, it won't get done." He indicated the notebooks and papers before them, "Just like here, if you don't get a basic understanding of the material we have, are and will cover this year, you'll have to stay in the fifth grade until you are able to." Laura frowned at him for reminding her about her current situation before looking back down at the mass of papers, wondering how she was going to stuff all this stuff into her head before summer break and feeling as if a heavy weight had plopped down into her belly. The room was quiet as Double-L studied her a moment before asking, "So, Laura, is there something that you keep going back to and working on despite various distractions?"

"Uh, yeah, of course!" She snorted, giving him a look that questioned his status of 'boy genius'… until she realized that he was waiting for her to tell him what the thing she kept going back to was, "Video games…"

"And why do you go back to those things?" Double-L asked, his voice much like it was when he was giving her hints on how to solve for x.

"Because it's fun?" She replied. Double-L sat there, processing her response, before motioning for her to go on. "I like finding treasures and the feeling after I beat a boss. I like going forward through the story and getting stronger as I go…" Double-L nodded thoughtfully, a gap-toothed smile curling up his face as she spoke. "What are you smiling about?" she demanded to know, but he said nothing as he began sorting through her notebooks so they were organized by subject. Once they were all organized, he pointed to the pile with her math book and notes, "If you get through thirty minutes of studying math with me, I will let you hold Mildred for five minutes." Laura's eyes widened at the thought of cuddling the cute little Kanker as he then patted on her history book, "If you do that and then get through thirty minutes of science with me, I will let you watch my brothers and I work on the spider bot for ten minutes while holding Mildred and enjoying some of your mother's cookies." Laura's stomach growled a bit, agreeing to the term for her while Double-L patted her science book, "After that, if you can manage to complete thirty minutes of history with me, you can help my brothers and I test the spider bot." Laura's eyes narrowed, "Test it _how?_"

"By seeing if you can sneak into the kitchen and hug my sister without the spider bot catching you." He held out his hand, "Do you accept the conditions I have just given you?"

Laura paused, as if to consider his deal, although it was quite obvious that she was quite pleased with the arrangement, she didn't want to just agree to it and miss out on a chance to get more out of it. "Five minutes of cuddling with your sister AND I get a cookie." She insisted.

"Sounds reasonable." Double-L said. She then grabbed his hand and shook it firmly, "It's a deal then."

Tom then watched as Laura began working harder than he'd ever seen her on some sample problems Double-L quickly whipped up for her. He watched, impressed as she thoughtfully inspected each math problem, glancing at her notes and flipping through the text book before smiling triumphantly and figuring out the answer and scribbling it down.

Double-L watched her too, for a few minutes, before politely excusing himself and telling her that if she got stuck to call for him. Laura nodded in understanding and waved him off, as if to say she had this handled before he slipped into the kitchen, leaving her to her work.

.

Allbert entered the kitchen and smiled when he saw his brothers sitting on the opposite side of the table, the spider bot plugged into the laptop, assumingly to charge or for a new command to upload, while his younger brothers munched on ginger snap cookies and sipped milk from sippy cups that Ms. Angelica most likely had unearthed for them. He then made a mental note to remind his parents that they should pack sippy cups next time they came over here. Mildred was clapping joyfully as Ms. Angelica moved her bunny around as if it was dancing on the table top of the high chair.

"Pardon my intrusion," Allbert said meekly, catching the woman's attention, "but could you please direct me to your bathroom?"

Ms. Angelica smiled at him warmly and informed him that it was just down the hall. He thanked her sheepishly before skittering off to the bathroom.

Once he had finished his business, he washed his hands thoroughly and exited the bathroom, he finally noticed that there were family photos mounted along the walls.

He glanced at the photos, intrigued. There were lots of photos of Laura and her brothers rough housing, a few full family photos, some photos of the Garcia children with their friends, a picture of Angel and Antonio (the two younger Garcia brothers) along with April, Oliver (Madeline's older brother) and Judy (Tom's older sister) smiling and laughing in Halloween costumes, holding up their plastic jack-o-lanterns for the viewer's inspection. He chuckled at the image and looked to the next photo… only for his jaw to drop.

_**A photo of a young Laura and Tom, hugging and smiling**_.

It was a small photo, surrounded by many bigger and more vibrant ones, so it was easy to miss if one wasn't looking too hard, but still, it was quite shocking to see the two of them together without Laura shouting at Tom for holding her against her will.

Allbert shook of the numbness of shock off and thought about it for a moment. He found himself realizing that it shouldn't be all that surprising, since Tom had seemed to know Laura really well when Allbert first met her on the first day of first grade. Curious as to when they could have been so close, he inspected the photo… confident in his ability to figure out Tom's age in the photo due to his and Tom's parents being friends since their mothers were still pregnant with them, he had a basic idea of when the picture _might_ have been taken, since he remembered that the first time he'd seen Tom with straight hair was when they were about five or six, so the picture was taken sometime before that… He glanced at the photos of Laura when she was little, focusing on the ones featuring her without her favorite green hat like she was in the photo with Tom, until he found one of her on her fifth birthday blowing out the candles with her in the center of the photo, some purple curls and a sliver of what he identified to be Tom's face to her left.

So they were probably four or five in the photo and very close at the time…

So why weren't they now?

What happened between these two for their relationship to change so drastically from best friends to a girl and her annoying stalker?

But before Allbert could speculate on the reasons, Laura poked her head into the hallway from the dining room, "Hey Double-L, you mind checking my work while I cuddle your cutie pie of a little sister?"

"I'm afraid any cuddling will come _after_ I see if you have a good enough understanding of the material." Allbert said as he walked towards the dining room.

"Oh come on! That wasn't part of the deal!" Laura whined.

"I'm doing this for your sake, if you were to get a bad grade despite my efforts to tutor you, your mother might think you didn't even try to understand what I've been teaching you, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Laura shivered at the suggestion before pouting and crossing her arms over her chest while she propped herself against a wall and Allbert began checking her work, quickly losing her composure as well as her patience she watched him mark her work with a red pen he pulled out of his cap, his eyes carefully scanning her work. Finally, he held the page up to her and gave her a satisfied gap-toothed smile, "Seven out of ten correct, excellent job, Laura." Laura let out a sigh of relief as he went onto say that, "_Now_ you may cuddle with my younger sis-" Laura raced out of the dining room before Allbert finished his sentence, making him chuckle as he walked towards the kitchen, looking out of the corner of his eye to see Tom jog towards the kitchen window, his listening devices in hand.

Allbert then looked towards the kitchen, silently deciding to ask Ms. Angelica about Laura and Tom's past while he tested Laura on the three chapters of science.

.

Laura happily bounced Mildred on her lap, munching on a cookie her mother had made while watching Double-L discuss the spider bot's progress with his younger brothers, the three seeming to speak their own language… or maybe they were speaking English, Laura had no idea what they were saying so it could have been either. And while normally that would bug the heck out of her, she had something sweet to take her mind off of the tech talk… she also had a cookie.

She looked back down at the little blue haired cutie on her lap, tickling the child and smiling when she saw the toddler's little teeth, not surprised to see that, like her brothers, there was a gap between her two front teeth…

Now that Laura thought about it, each Kanker kid had some defining feature in their teeth, Sheldon and April had buck teeth, Double-L and his siblings had gaps between their two front teeth, and Andy and his sisters each had a single blue tooth in their mouths. It was actually kind of interesting… until the little one began to fuss and fidget on her lap, suddenly uncomfortable. Laura dropped her cookie and lifted the child into her arms, panicking, "What did I do? What did I do?"

"Relax." Double-L said, "She might just have a little gas, if you gently pat her on the back, she should be fine." Laura lifted Mildred so her chin rested on her shoulder (like she had seen on TV) and patted her on the back, only to hear something that sounded much like a hiccup and then felt the toddler relax on her shoulder… as well as something warm sliding down her back.

"Oh dear!" Double-L squeaked as he yanked his handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed it against her shoulder, "Y-you have my sincerest apologies, Laura!" he cried.

Angelica scooped Mildred into her arms and said, "Don't worry too much about it, Laura, why don't you go upstairs and go change, I'll clean little Milly here up."

Laura agreed, but only if the time she spent changing wasn't taken out of her time playing with the toddler, leading Double-L to explain his and Laura's bargain to her mother while she ran upstairs to change.

Laura dashed up the stairs into her bedroom and changed quickly, not because she was afraid that Double-L wouldn't stop the 'hugging Mildred' clock for her while she changed, oh no, he said he would and Allbert 'Double-L' Kanker was a kid of his word. But it was because she wanted to go back to playing with the little one and maybe get to play with his brothers too before she had to go back to work.

She quickly finished changing and raced back downstairs and was about to enter the kitchen when she heard her mother and Double-L talking about something in soft, secretive tones. She crept closer to the doorway and listened carefully.

"… So I was right, Laura and Tom were good friends when they were younger." Double-L said. Laura's eyes widened at the news that he knew about her past friendship with Tom, especially since no one outside her or Tom's families (except for Ty and Tim) knew about that.

"Yes, Laura and him got into a fight at her birthday party, he tried apologizing and trying to make it up to her, but whatever happened really hurt her, she acted as if she didn't know him."

Laura clenched her fists and stepped into the doorway, "I _don't_ know him." she said firmly, although some hurt managed to slip into her tone, despite her best efforts, forcing herself not to look through the window and see the hurt expression on Tom's face.

And it was the truth, she didn't know him… Not after he went to that stupid sleep away camp. Before he went there he was sweet and nice to her, always trying to introduce her to some weird nerd thing and make it interesting, which sometimes, it was. He was always playing games with her, he had even made a few games up with her, the two would always have fun and laugh together… Laura smiled as she recalled how his purple curls used to bounce up and down when he laughed… then she shook her head, the kid she had known… and kinda, sorta, maybe had a crush on… was gone.

The cute little curly haired nerd she liked left home and a more arrogant, straight haired nerd had returned in his place. But even though he was different, she tried her best to keep their crumbling friendship intact… until he had said the words that still haunted her to this day after saving him from her rambunctious older brothers…

Laura trembled for a moment before launching herself forward into the doorway and walked into the room and hugged little Mildred and helping herself to another cookie, the mood no longer light hearted and cheerful.

After a little bit, Double-L gently tapped her shoulder, "It's time for us to look over your science notes." He whispered softly. Laura nodded silently and carefully passed Mildred over to her mother before they walked back into the dining room and took their seats.

Double-L began gauging where her science knowledge was lacking and began covering material accordingly. Laura made notes and began reviewing them while he made up a few test questions for her, the silence in the room becoming stifling as they worked.

"I'm very sorry for opening old wounds." Double-N said in a gentle voice, "However, given from the interactions between you two that I've witnessed over the years, you can understand my curiosity."

She frowned thoughtfully as she considered his point for the first time since overhearing them and he had a point, if he had been friends with Tom and then worst enemies, she would probably want to find out more too, although her investigation would most likely go deeper than simply asking his mother for confirmation and nothing more. "It's fine." She finally huffed, "Just don't tell anyone about it, okay?"

"Your secret is safe with me." Double-L promised with a comforting gap-toothed smile as he handed her his little quiz, "After this, you may resume your quality time with my younger sister as Larry, Terry and I work on the spider bot."

"Hey Double-L, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"How come your mother usually calls your little brothers by their nicknames when she calls you and your sister by your full first names?"

Double-L gave her a sheepish gap-toothed grin as he revealed that, "Because when I learned that I was getting two little brothers, I commented on how it would be amusing if they were named Larry and Terry."

"How is that funny?"

"Because then they could both be 'Double-R'." Double-L said, a bit embarrassed and his cheeks a bit flushed, "Or 'Quadruple-R' depending on the situation." Laura began to laugh at that, "So you'd keep it in the family?" she asked through her bouts of laughter.

"Something like that, yes." He admitted as he rubbed the back of his head, "My parents liked it and we just kept calling them 'Larry and Terry' when we were referring to them to other people, although when speaking with them, we were careful to not refer to them by name yet because, well, we didn't know which one was going to be Larry and which one would be Terry and we didn't want to confuse them."

Laura continued to chuckle as the blue haired Kanker slipped out of the room and back into the kitchen and she began looking at the pop quiz he gave her.

.

Tom was watching Laura work on her little quiz, not feeling as eager to watch her after hearing her denounce that their old friendship and basically saying it never happened, just recalling her say, 'I _don't_ know him' made his chest ache. And while he was a little pissed at Double-L for opening up that old can of worms, he was surprised that the guy managed to get the exact ages they were when they were friends just from an old photograph.

He sighed, what was it gonna take for her to forgive him already? What did he have to do to at least have her look his way without a scowl on her face?

Tom was ready to lose himself in 'what's and 'how's when he suddenly heard what sounded like someone was tapping on the kitchen window, he glanced back and forth, confused until he heard the tapping sound again.

He quietly slipped away from his spot by the dining room window towards the kitchen window only to find a paper plate with a few cookies on it and a paper cup filled half way with milk and a note that read, "My apologies." in Double-L's neat cursive handwriting (although Tom had no idea why the guy wrote in cursive, it was the twenty-first century, who still wrote in cursive?).

Tom looked at the note for a moment before pocketing it and helping himself to a cookie, after all, it was most likely left out here for his consumption, so why not enjoy them?

He watched Laura walk in and hand over her mini quiz to Double-L for grading before reaching for his little sister… only for her mother to say, "If you got anything lower than a 'C' on that quiz, young lady then you are going right back in there for another twenty minutes of studying." Laura opened her mouth to protest only for the phone to ring and her mother to silence her with a glare before answering the phone.

Double-L held up a sheet of paper with a big red 'B' on it for both Garcia women to see before putting the sheet of paper onto the table and carefully placing his sister in Laura's arms to be adored while Angelica smiled vibrantly at her daughter before saying, "So you'll be back in twenty minutes? That's fine, my husband and sons will probably be home at around that time anyway… Oh, she seems to be doing well according to these little quizzes she's been doing! I might just borrow him tomorrow too… hmn? Oh! Well that would be very kind of you! …Uh huh… uh huh… oh, I couldn't ask you to go to all that trouble… Well, alright then, I'll see you in a little while then, adios!" Angelica then turned to the youngsters in her kitchen, "Well, Allbert, Larry, Terry, Mildred, your mother just called, she and your father will be here in a little while to take you home."

Larry and Terry looked to their older brother and gently tugged at his sleeves, "Since the time table has been shortened…" Larry began. "Would it be alright if Laura would aid us in our testing now while we're here?" Terry finished.

"Why certainly, if it's alright with Laura and her mother." Double-L replied.

Laura looked up at her mother pleadingly for a minute before the woman sighed and said, "Alright, alright, but only because Dr. Ann offered to have you over tomorrow for more tutoring and said that they'd be happy to have us over for dinner too."

"YES!" Laura cheered, jumping into the air and bouncing Mildred a bit in her arms as she did so.

Double-L, Larry and Terry prepped the spider bot while Angelica placed Mildred into the old high chair, handing the suddenly tired toddler her stuffed toys and shooed her daughter out of the kitchen so she could set up a little obstacle course and turning off the lights before she was allowed to enter again.

Tom smiled as he munched on cookies and sipped his milk and watched Laura Garcia carefully maneuver around pots, pans, silverware and more in an attempt not to get caught by the spider bot and marveled when the spider bot shot what the three boy Kankers informed the Garcias to be _real_ spider silk and caught the creeping girl before she managed to reach the now dozing off Mildred.

Tom sat at the window and watched the events unfold from his spot outside the kitchen window until the Kanker's retro van pulled up into the Garcia's driveway.

Then he vanished without a trace.

So, when Double-L went to collect any trash Tom might of left before he went home, he was surprised to see his note folded in half on the ground.

When he unfolded it, he found the following message waiting for him inside;

'Not your fault,

but thanks for the snack.'


	10. Big Sister (Mildred, Jasmine and Emma)

Three year old Mildred Kanker had heard the most magical words she'd ever heard in her whole life a few months back from her parents, "You all are going to have a new little brother or sister!" her mother had cheerfully announced, her hands caressing her belly. She and her brothers cheerfully swarmed around their parents for a nice warm hug and the little girl felt her father's fingers gently ruffle through her bright blue locks, "Looks like you're gonna be a big sister soon, huh Milly?" her father chuckled.

At that moment, Mildred had been both overjoyed and stressed. She was happy that she could be a big sister, but what did big sisters do?

She borrowed every children's book about being a big sister she found in the library.

She had watched several episodes of various children shows where kids learned about the responsibilities of being an older sibling.

She had even googled 'How to be a big sister'… well, okay, she typed in "Who to b a bog siser' but as it was with most three year olds, spelling wasn't not her forte, but all things considered, she had still been pretty close to typing her question in correctly.

And even though she had done all this research, she _still_ felt as if she didn't know enough to be a good big sister. And it was making her feel sad.

She had three wonderful older brothers who made her laugh, protected her, included her in whatever they were doing (even if their friends weren't happy about it, which was rare, but it still never stopped them from including her), helped her with anything she asked for, taught her anything she didn't understand and wanted to know more about, they even made her wonderful gifts, like her spider silk gun, which ever since her brothers gave it to her for her third birthday, she had never let leave her side.

Now, she knew they would be great big brothers to the new baby cause, well, they already _were_ good big brothers, but what about her? What did one do to become a great big sister?

This question never stopped crossing her mind, no matter what she did and she was starting to feel upset about it, but what could she do? She couldn't talk to her parents about it because she didn't want her Mommy and Daddy to know that she hadn't figured out how to be a good big sister yet and she couldn't talk to her brothers about it because they wouldn't know how to be a good big sister anyway, they were boys, they could only be big brothers.

So, Mildred was left to solve this mystery on her own, and while normally the thought of her solving the mystery of anything besides 'where are Mommy or Daddy's keys' or ' where did that piece of your brothers' invention go?' or 'who's got your nose' filled her with glee, this case just seemed to be too much for the normally spunky three year old.

One day while she and her brothers were at summer camp/daycare at Miss Rachel's, the woman came up to her, well, more like waddled up to her with her hands cradling her own pregnant belly, and asked, "Ranger Mildred, why is your frown upside down?"

"Smile." Her husband and co-worker, Mister Conner corrected as he and their two sons walked out into the yard where Mildred had been pouting and the two boys walked over to her, curious as to why she seemed so distraught as well, "Why is your _smile_ upside down." He offered.

"That is what I said, yes?" Miss Rachel said, then turned to the little girl and rephrased her question in a gentle tone, "Why are you so down, little one?"

Mildred looked up at Miss Rachel, "I'm gonna be a big sister soon and I don't know how to be one!" She said, her eyes filling with tears.

"Do not cry, Spider-Girl-Mildred!" Ralph said, gently patting the girl's head, "I will soon be a big brother and I am not worried!"

"You're not?" she sniffled as she rubbed away the forming tears.

"No! I have Rick! He is a good big brother, yes?" he said, pointing to his elder brother, who was trying to hide his flushed face behind the rim of his hat. "I have learned everything about being a good big brother from him!" he paused, thinking, then brightened, "Perhaps Spider-Girl-Mildred should ask some big sisters she knows about what a big sister should do?" he suggested.

Mildred brightened, of course! Why hadn't she thought of that? She quickly went through all the big sisters she knew of and smiled, "Thank you, Ralph!" she said, giving the boy a big hug before racing out to the playground, searching for the bestest big sister she knew…

.

Jasmine was playing tea party with Penny, Roxy, Mia, Tia, Kim and April, when April excused herself to the bathroom and skipped inside Miss Rachel and Mister Conner's house when little Mildred raced up to them, crying out, "APRIL! APRIL! APRIL!"

"She just left for the bathroom, what's up?" Jasmine asked.

"I wanted to ask her about being a big sister since I'm gonna be one soon!" Mildred blurted as she glanced around, hoping she could spot the eldest Kanker on her way to the house.

"Why?" Roxy asked in Penny's stead. Mildred flushed and glanced at her shoes, "'Cause- 'cause I'm Spider Girl and I don't know how to be a good big sister… And! And Ralph said that he wasn't worried about not being a good older brother 'cause he can learn all he needs to know about being a good big brother from Rick! … So I thought that maybe April could teach me how to be a good big sister!" she said, her voice bouncing from sad and a little ashamed to energetic and hopeful a few times during her explanation.

The group of girls paused thoughtfully at the idea, Jasmine being especially pensive because her mom was pregnant too and she would soon be an older sister as well. She had been so busy between being excited about the baby and helping get everything ready for it and helping her dad keep her mom from flipping out about everything that she had never had the time to think about what she should do for the baby once it was actually born. And now she felt a bit out of sorts, what good was it to help prep for the baby if she didn't know how to be a good big sister for it?

"That's a really cool idea!" Kim cried excitedly, breaking the silence as she gushed that, "You and Rick and Jasmine are so lucky! I wish I could have a little brother or sister too! They're so cute! But my Mom and Dad said that I already have two awesome big brothers and that we don't need another baby…" she said, sounding a bit upset at the end of the sentence, her two best friends patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

Jasmine looked at Mildred, the little girl had the right idea and she wanted to ask April too, but it would be kind of embarrassing to ask something like that… not that April would tease them or think lesser of them for it. No, April was too sweet and kindhearted to ever so much as think something like that, if anything, she'd probably be very proud of them for wanting to know all they could about being a big sister before their new little siblings came into the world. But asking something that sounded so simple and easy was still really embarrassing… but she still _really_ wanted to ask… Jasmine found herself caught in a loop of 'want to, but it's embarrassing, but still really want to' and quickly yanked herself out of it, she would get nowhere if she kept thinking like that… then she noticed how antsy Mildred seemed to be and how pink her cheeks were and how her eyes seemed to roam around nervously, perhaps her asking April was difficult for her too… Jasmine smiled, she had an idea that could help both of them.

"Hey Milly, since we're both gonna be big sisters, why don't we both ask April to teach us?" she suggested, figuring that if she offered to join her in her quest to understand the role of big sister better, that it would be easier for both of them to ask.

"Really?" Mildred beamed, her eyes wide with joy and gratitude that Jasmine would be her partner in such a difficult case, "Uh, yeah," Jasmine said, trying not to act as embarrassed as she felt with the little girl's sparkling eyes of glee upon her as she went onto say that, "I mean, we're both gonna be big sisters so maybe we can help each other…" Jasmine didn't get to finish her statement before Mildred gave her a big hug, "We're Spider Girls!" she cried out cheerfully, Jasmine smiled and hugged the little girl back, understanding the girl's outburst as words of thanks and that they could do it.

"We'll help too!" Roxy cried, as Penny nodded eagerly, "We'll go get April for you!"

"I'll go too!" Kim volunteered, popping out of her seat as Penny pushed herself off the ground with one hand, cradling Roxy in her free hand. Before any of the other girls could say anything more about it, the two (three if you're counting Roxy) dashed off towards the house at an impressive speed, leaving Jasmine, Mildred, Mia and Tia at the play table.

Mia and Tia looked at each other, then Tia blushed as she spoke in a soft voice, "Well, I probably won't be much help, but Mia's my big sister by a few minutes, maybe she could help too." Mia gave her a hug and said, "Of course you can! Even if I'm a few minutes older, we're still twins, we have our connection so we can both help!" Tia smiled and hugged her sister back.

"Rule Number One," Mia giggled, "Hugs always help when they're feeling down!" The older girls chuckled while Mildred patted her dress down for paper and something to write with. After running back to Miss Rachel and Mister Conner handing her a couple pieces of construction paper and a few crayons before she ran back, handed Jasmine some paper and crayons as well and the girls wrote out the rule as best they could (again, Mildred is three, so her letters and numbers aren't exactly legible at this point in time) just as Kim and Penny dragged April, back from the bathroom.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Mia and Tia quickly explained what was going on and that they were hoping she could help the two older sisters to be, completing each other's sentences with ease, as if flaunting their deep knowledge and trust in one another.

"So you want me to teach you two how to be good big sisters?" April clarified. Jasmine and Mildred nodded, looking up at her eagerly, April gave them her classic cheerful smile and said, "Of course! I'm going to a sleepover at my friend Judy's house tonight, but I'll be back home by noon tomorrow, why don't we start then?"

"Okay!" Jasmine agreed, pleased that April would help them as Mildred began bouncing on her toes and dancing with the other girls cheering about how, "I'm gonna learn how to be the bestest big sister _ever_!"

After the girls did a series of victory dances, Miss Rachel called them over, telling them that their parents were there to pick them up, Mildred and Jasmine stuffed the papers they wrote on into their pockets as the girls met up with their parents and brothers and waved goodbye as they all walked home.

Mildred was so excited about her Big Sister lessons tomorrow that she couldn't stop smiling and bouncing on her toes as she helped her family make dinner and set the table.

"So, Mildred, what were you and the girls talking about to make you so giddy?" Larry asked her as they all sat down for dinner. They had been at Miss Rachel's as well, but they were playing in the sand box with Ralph before he got stung by a bee and his brother put a halt on his game with Kim's brothers, Calvin and Noah, to rush him to their closest parent (their Papa) and get him some first aid, the two boys captured the insect at fault for their friend's injury and planned to study it later that evening. (because just killing it would be too kind after it harmed one of their best friends for just sitting and playing in the sand with them, not swatting at it or agitating it at all)

"Yeah, you were quiet all day and then after you talk to Miss Rachel and Ralph, you race over to the girls and then you all get excited about something." Terry elaborated for the rest of the family to understand why her sudden cheerfulness was so odd as they began passing platters of food around and Allbert helped her fill up a plate, their parents and eldest brother looking at her, concerned. Mildred was a vibrant child to say the least, always loud and cheerful, so the fact that she had been quiet all day was news to them.

Their mother had been called into work to cover for Dr. Feeble while their father had sat with their uncles as they watched as Allbert, Sheldon and Andy dashed around for football at Peach Creek Jr. High. Now, Allbert wasn't a huge fan of the sport, but due to their daily spats with Ty, Tom and Tim, the school councilor insisted that the six of them try out for the Peach Creek Cobblers together, saying that 'Once you work together as a team and get to know one another, perhaps you'll all get along better!' (Author: It doesn't work. The coach didn't know the plan and put them on apposing teams for try outs, they basically rammed and tackled each other all day, which isn't all that much different than their usual school tussles.)

The elders of their family turned to Mildred, curious, "Mildred?" her mother called softly. Mildred froze as she stared at her mother, she didn't want her Mommy to know that she didn't know how to be a big sister yet! She didn't want her Daddy or big brothers to know that either, so instead, she did something she wished she didn't have to; she lied.

"April's helping her friend draw a new comic and she asked me to come to her house at noon tomorrow to pose for her, a few of the other girls in the neighborhood are helping too." She said softly, having a hard time keeping eye contact with her mother, who inspected her with a thoughtful expression for a moment before softening and saying, "Oh! Well, that sounds lovely! Just be sure to let either me, your Father or one of your brothers know if you're going to stay at Aunt An and Uncle Jay's for dinner, alright?"

"I'm Spider Girl!" she said with a nod and a salute before digging into her meal, stuffing her face with food to avoid any more questions for her to answer, after all, her Mother was very firm about not talking with food in one's mouth. (Author: A beautiful benefit to manners, giving you an excuse not to talk about stuff you don't wanna talk about at the dinner table)

After she ate dinner, she had a popsicle for dessert, a nice bath and her parents tucking her into bed, her brothers quickly slipping into the room so she could get a kiss from each member of her family and give her mother's belly a kiss and a hug before she snuggled into her comfy bed to sleep and her family wished her a good night before turning on her night light (Author's Note: what? Even Spider Girls can be afraid of the dark when they are three years old, there could be monsters under her bed or in her closet and without light she won't be able to aim properly!), turning out the lights and closing her bedroom door.

Mildred smiled as she drifted to sleep, cuddling her old bunny that her brothers had given to her as a baby and her spider silk gun close to her chest as she dreamed of holding her bundled up new baby sibling (whose face she could not see and whose gender she did not know) and her family praising her for being such a good big sister.

.

Jasmine was also excited for tomorrow's lessons, but she was also nervous. Although, after her mother had flipped out about how fat she looked in her nightgown before they all went to bed at their usual time, she nearly forgot about the lessons entirely. It took a pint of Ben and Jerry's and an hour of her father and her telling her how pretty she was and how she was being silly before she finally calmed down and went to bed. Her dad pulled out another pint of ice cream and scooped it all out into two big bowls of ice cream for the two of them and told her that "You're such a good girl, Jazzy. You'll make a great big sister, just like your Aunt An." Jasmine stopped halfway through a bite of peaches and cream ice cream and stared at him, "Aunt An?" she echoed, the doubt and worry she had about not learning enough about being a big sister from April fading away as she realized that there were _two_ big sisters she could ask for advise.

"Yeah, your Aunt An is _my_ big sister." Her dad reminded her, "You never stop being someone's brother or sister, even when you grow up."

"Was Aunt An a good big sister?" Jasmine asked softly, stirring the ice cream around in her bowl with her spoon.

"One of the best." Her dad said, his eyes glazed over and a small smile curled up his cheeks, it looked as if he was enjoying a stroll through memory lane while Jasmine realized that her ice cream was melting and began gobbling it down, her dad snapping out of his daze as she dropped her spoon in her empty bowl with a loud clink and gently taking her hands in his around the bowl, stopping her from washing the bowl out and slipping it into the dishwasher so her mother would never know that they had ate so much ice cream before bed.

"Jazzy, are you nervous about being a big sister?" her dad asked her in a soft voice. Jasmine felt panic crawl up the back of her throat, she couldn't let her dad know about her doubts! She didn't want her dad to worry about her feeling unprepared for the duties of a big sister while her mom was acting crazy, her cravings and mood swings threw them both through flaming hoops suspended over giant vats of acid that they barely managed to safely slip through for the past few months. The last thing her dad needed was another thing to worry about.

"No, Dad." She said softly, "I'm totally ready for it, I mean, the baby's gotta be easier to handle than Mom." (Author's Note: Oh, you poor, naïve child.) Her dad chuckled a bit as he quickly finished up his ice cream and put both bowls into the sink and began rinsing them off as she went on to say that, "…and-and even if I'm _not_, I have two good big sisters who I can go to for advise, right?" Her dad smiled at her, "You know it, Princess." He said softly as he put the bowls and spoons in the sink and scooped his daughter up into his arms, "Come on, Jazzy Bear, it's time for bed." He said as he carried her to her room and tucked her in, gave her a kiss on the forehead, told her he loved her, wished her a good night and turned out the light, her flower shaped night light sending out a soft purple light into her room.

"… I _will _be a good big sister." She told herself as she felt her eyelids become heavy, "You can count on me, Daddy." She promised before drifting to sleep, her determined expression softening when she finally succumbed to slumber.

.

Mildred and Jasmine were both waiting with their mothers outside April's house the next day five minutes before she was due home, the other girls came over and wished them luck and apologized for not being able to stay due to having to go on a few errands with their mothers. The three elder Kanker boys were at football practice again, this time, the Kanker men brought the other fathers and boys of the cul-de-sac to watch them too (Except for Conner, he had to work on the farm with Rachel and finish the morning chores up, he joined them when they finished). Mildred and Jasmine's mothers, who were the only ones besides April's mom who weren't out on errands or busy with household chores, had decided to enjoy an afternoon of snacks and swapping stories while the girls played. After they established this, they decided to wait for Aunt An to return with April and then the women would chat in the kitchen while the girls played outside.

After a few minutes of waiting, An returned with more than just April, but her friend Judy and Mrs. Goldstein, Judy's mom, as well.

April pulled Judy towards the two younger girls after they climbed out of the car and said, "Judy volunteered to help too since she's a-" Mildred and Jasmine quickly clamped their hands over their elder cousin's mouth, hissing out 'shhhh!' and indicated their mothers with their fingers. Judy picked up on the fact that they were trying to keep their big sister lessons a secret before April did and decided to help the two out. "Uh, the scene she's drawing for the comic needs three people, so I'm here to help." She loudly informed them, remembering what Miss An said to her mother on the way over about the little girls volunteering to pose for one of April's comics. Their mothers stopped in the middle of their greetings and cheerful discussions to look over at the girls (April's mouth free from her cousins' hands), seemingly soak in the information and then go back to chatting as Judy's mom held up a beautiful cake and An ushered them towards the house, the women urging the girls to 'have fun!' before vanishing inside the house.

The girls let out sighs of relief that the women bought it as they then dashed inside to get some of April's art supplies (to keep up appearances) and go back outside so April and Judy could begin their lesson.

.

After two hours, Jasmine and Mildred seemed to get the basics of being big sisters down, much to April and Judy's relief. Helping them understand how to be good big sisters was actually more difficult than it sounded.

April had been the first child born in the neighborhood, she was used to being the eldest and didn't understand how it was like to be an only child like Jasmine (although, Jasmine seemed to get some of the concepts of being an older sister from dealing with her pregnant mother), since she had been a baby while she had been an only child and couldn't remember much of it. Judy was the middle child in her family, so it meant that while she was a big sister, she was also a little sister, so she could kind of relate to Mildred a bit, but the age differences between Mildred and her brothers were radically different from hers, (Allbert- eight years older, Larry and Terry- two years older vs Isi (Judy's older brother) – one year older and Tom (Judy's younger brother) one year younger) so it was hard to come up with ways Mildred would tackle certain problems alone without either one of her parents, her brothers, her mother's cousin, Luca, who often came over to help out, her grandparents, or her great aunts around to help.

But, they still managed to teach them what they could before Judy, Jasmine and Mildred went home, holding their mother's hands and thanking April and her mother for having them as they left.

April collected her supplies and collapsed into the couch, "Being a teacher is hard work," She huffed to her mother, who sat beside her, wondering why she seemed so tired, "But I feel really good about what I did." She finished with a tired smile, "Maybe I'll be a teacher when I grow up." Her mom smiled and kissed her on the forehead, "You can be whatever you want, April, as long as you're happy doing it."

She smiled at her mom and thanked her before her brother and father came home, informing them that Sheldon, Andy and Allbert had made the football team and then conversing all about their day.

April listened to her family's words but found herself glancing through the windows towards Mildred and Jasmine's houses, wondering if what she and Judy taught them had been of any help. She wasn't sure but she had a feeling that the two girls would be fine, after all, even if they didn't know how to be good big sisters, wasn't the fact that they went to all this trouble to learn about being one enough proof that they'd be great? April pondered this until her dad announced that they should start on dinner before it got too late and April popped off the couch and followed her family into the kitchen to get started, stopping at the doorway for a moment and glancing through the windows at her two young cousins' houses.

'Yeah,' she told herself as she saw the two girl's shadows through the windows, 'they'll be great big sisters.'

.

Over the next few weeks, Mildred and Jasmine worked hard to know about helping their families with the baby. They had their moms show them how to take care of a baby and convinced Larry, Terry, Ralph, Sheldon and Mildred's friends, Max and Rayen, (since Penny and Roxy claimed that they'd rather watch and learn) to help them practice everything but the diaper changing (they all decided that they could learn more changing a dolly's diaper then having them wear diapers and having them change them). They helped Miss Rachel with the younger children (which was actually nice since her baby bump was starting to get in the way of her work a bit) and even worked with their moms to make a toy to bring to their new siblings in the hospital after they were born, poking their fingers with sewing needles and knitting needles a few times while doing so.

Overall, the two girls were working hard to become good big sisters and were feeling confident in their abilities.

Then one day Mildred's parents came to pick her brothers up from after school care and her up from preschool and placed one hand from each child on their mother's belly, "Say hello to your baby sister." Their mother said softly.

Mildred was overjoyed at first, after all, even though she loved her brothers and father, she and her mother were outnumbered 4 to 2 in their household and it would be nice to have another girl in the house to play with… a girl… oh no…

Mildred's eyes began swimming in tears and before she knew it, she was outright bawling.

"What's wrong, Milly?" Terry asked.

"Yes, I thought if anything, you'd be happy to have a little sister to play with." Larry agreed.

"Were you hoping to have a little brother instead?" Allbert asked her, trying to make some sense out of this with his brothers, first the girl works so hard to get ready for the baby and now that she knows that she's going to have a little sister, she cries?

"No!" she sobbed.

"Then why are you crying, Milly?" her father asked as he scooped her up into his arms and up to her mother, "You got the little sister you wanted."

"It's-na-not-t-tha-that-I-didn't-wha-wha-want-on-one-or-da-the-other!" she breathed inbetween tears, "BUT I'M SPIDER GIRL AND I ONLY LEARNED HOW TO BE A GOOD BIG SISTER TO A LITTLE BROTHER!" she wailed, "I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO LEARN HOW TO BE A GOOD BIG SISTER TO A LITTLE SISTER BEFORE SHE'S BORN! I'M GONNA BE A BAD BIG SISTER EVEN THOUGH I TRIED SO HARD NOT TO BE ONE!" Mildred then completely broke down in her father's arms, crying hysterically and clung tightly to her dad's jacket, her body bouncing violently as she sobbed.

Jasmine felt as if she had been struck. Mildred was absolutely right; they had learned about being a big sister from two girls who only had little brothers; they only practiced taking care of babies on boys; and they were only able to use what was probably a boy baby doll to learn how to change a diaper since it was the only baby doll Miss Rachel had for them to practice on.

They knew _nothing_ about being a big sister for a little girl.

Jasmine felt as if her lungs were collapsing as she gripped her hair, what if she had a little sister too? She wouldn't know what to do! And there was only so much time left before the kid would be born! She didn't have enough time to learn everything at kindergarten and take care of her mom AND learn how to be a good big sister to a little girl!

She suddenly couldn't breathe, she became as pale as her hair and tried to suck in air, but to no avail as she watched the little three year old crying loudly, apologizing to her mother and her baby sister for being an _awful_ big sister, her father and brothers trying their hardest to convince her otherwise and calm her down, but no matter what they said, she simply howled, "**NO**! **I'M **_**SPIDER GIRL**_!" as if telling them that there was no excuse for her failure to consider that she could have a little sister instead of a little brother and did not prepare for it properly.

Then her mother gently took her out of her father's embrace, pulled her close and asked, in a soft voice, "What are you talking about, Sweetheart?"

Mildred tried to explain, only to let out loud sobs instead. "Take a deep breath, Mildred, you can do it, you are Spider girl after all." At that, Mildred began to calm down, she took deep breaths and wiped at her face for a minute before she could speak, "I'm Spider girl…" she sniffled, "And Spider girls have good mommies and good daddies and good big brothers, so I wanted to be a good big sister… but…" her eyes began to water again, "But even though I worked really hard to learn how to be a good big sister, I could only practice on boys and asked people with little brothers and…" Her mother stopped her mid-way through her explanation and hugged her tightly, smiling jubilantly at her when they parted, "Your little sister is a very lucky little girl to have you as her big sister, Mildred." She said proudly.

Mildred looked up at her mother, her eyes wide, "Sh-She is?" she sniffled.

"Of course! You've done so much to get ready for her arrival and have been working so hard to be the best sister you can be before she's even born that it doesn't matter if she's a girl. You love this child so much and obviously treasure her and will do your best to help her and care for her and that's what big sisters do." She stroked a few stray hairs off her daughter's face, "I certainly wish I had an older sister as dedicated as you growing up."

Jasmine let the words sink in as air returned to her lungs. Dr. Ann was right. It didn't really matter if the baby was a boy or a girl, she was gonna work hard to look out and care for her new sibling either way, she felt relieved and smiled along with everyone else as they watched a smile finally curl up Mildred's cheeks as tears of relief and joy trickled down them, "Ye-You do?" Mildred asked.

"Yes, Mildred. We all do." She said, her husband and sons nodding in agreement as they pulled the three year old into a _big_ group hug, "But, then again, what did we expect?" Her father chuckled, "after all, you are…"

"SPIDER GIRL!" Mildred cheered as she snuggled into the warmth of her family's embrace. Everyone chuckling at the sight before the Kanker family headed home, Jasmine stopping them for a minute by gently tugging on Dr. Ann's skirt to smile at Mildred and say, "Congratulations on your new little sister, Milly! She's definitely a lucky girl!"

"Thank you, Jazzy! You'll be a great big sister too!" Mildred exclaimed happily before they said their good byes and she watched the family walk home, Mildred chattering on excitedly as they did.

Later that week Jasmine would learn that she was getting a little sister too, and she felt confident that she would be the best big sister she could be for the girl.

.

A few months later, Mildred was racing through the halls with her brothers, Luca, all of her grandparents and her great aunts and Gladys the Great, the bunny blanket (a hand knitted bunny head and arms attached to a blanket) she had made for her new little sister in her arms. As the four Kanker siblings rotated in a circle, glancing for their mother's room number until Luca spotted their father waiting outside the door for them.

He smiled at the sight of his family and silently placed a finger to his lips as he opened the door, revealing their tired mother holding a pink colored bundle lovingly.

Mildred looked at the rest of her family meekly and murmured, "Ca-Can I go in to see her first?"

The adults chuckled as her siblings nodded in agreement and motioned for her to enter before them while their grandmother started filming.

Mildred scampered up to her mother, her gift held tightly in her hands as she reached the bed, then she used her spider silk gun to help her up to her mother and new little sister.

"I-Is this my new baby sister?" she whispered, in awe of the tiny slumbering marvel curled up in her mother's arms.

"Yes." Her mother replied in a gentle tone as she motioned for the blue haired child to come closer, "Mildred, meet your little sister Emma."

"Ca-Can I hold her?" Mildred asked quietly, her eyes sparkling. Her mother chuckled as she carefully placed the infant in her elder daughter's arms and softly instructed her how to hold the baby before gently threading her fingers through her blue hair.

Mildred looked down at Emma, and carefully slipped the gift she had made near where she guessed her hands would be.

"We're Spider Girls." She whispered, giving the newest addition to the family a kiss on the forehead before gingerly passing her sister to her brothers and feeling her parents' arms wrap around her, "You certainly are, Mildred." Her mother cooed, "You certainly are."


	11. An Very Happy Valentine's Day

Anny Kanker was sitting at her desk at her talent agency, she wore a smart, dark pink dress with a matching jacket flung over the back of her chair, her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail and her fingernails were long and painted red, they tapped on her desktop with an air of annoyance as she scowled at the photos and papers sprawled out on her desk about this new opportunity she was chatting about, the framed photos of her with her best friends, her with her husband and her with her family, Andy as a baby smiling with spaghetti sauce all over his face, pictures of her friends and family covering the wall behind her, she let out a huff at the materials on her desk, before finally snapping, "No fucking way!"

"Mrs. Kanker, it's a good deal for these girls and…" a male voice said on speaker phone.

"Those girls are trained in ballet, tap, salsa, tango, and about a hundred dances you've never even heard of! They're not a bunch of trashy strippers, those are girls who love to dance and if you think I'm letting them dance around in the outfits you provided them, to sell a perfume called 'Elegance', then not only are you a sick freak, but you obviously don't know what 'elegance' means." Anny snapped.

"Mrs. Kanker…"

"Don't 'Mrs. Kanker', me, asshole, my husband and I taught those girls how to dance ourselves, I've known them since they were six. Now either you give them something more then fucking loincloths and tissue paper to wear for this commercial or you can find someone else!"

"Mrs. Kanker, please be reasonable…

"Reasonable? You're the ones wanting to make teenage girls dance on TV almost completely naked, not me, pal! I will not allow my sixteen year old clients to expose themselves like that! If you still want these girls, I have a contact with one of the most up-in-coming fashion designers around to make _real_ clothes for this thing and can arrange a meeting for you and then everything will be just peachy, otherwise, we're done talking."

The man's voice sighed as he finally replied, "Fine, we'll give them different costumes… who is this designer you had in mind?" Anny told him the name and smiled triumphantly as she listened to the man flip out at her contact.

"She's one of the hottest new designers around! Her fall fashion show in New York last year was the best one in years, how do _you_ have her contact info?" the man demanded. Anny smiled as she explained that, "Well, one, I grew up with her. Two, she married one of my best friends' little brother and three, she's a client too." Anny said, smiling that she now had the upper hand, "But if she designs the costumes she'll wanna get paid and credited for her work."

There was a brief pause before the man quickly agreed and gave her the best times their people could meet with her designer.

"That's more like it." Anny purred, then she hung up the phone and e-mailed Jamie the job. She smiled when Jamie immediately called her back and told her when was good for her and relaxed back into her chair when she wrote another e-mail telling the makers of 'Elegance' perfume when Jamie would meet with them in her conference room to discuss the job.

She sighed contently as she leaned back in her chair, man she loved her job; making people bend to her will _while_ making other peoples dreams come true, _and_ getting _paid _to do it?

What could be_ better_?

Her phone buzzed, it was from the front desk, she pulled herself back up into a formal sitting position and pressed the button, "Yeah Tiff?" she called to her sister, who was also her receptionist.

"Sis, there's someone here with a delivery for you." Tiffany said, giggling, "Want me to buzz him in?"

Anny rolled her eyes, it was probably Tee, Tiffany always got a kick out of it whenever she saw her brother-in-law in the office because that meant she got to tease her little sister/ boss, "Sure." Anny replied, "Let 'em in."

The door to her office buzzed and it opened, but instead of her husband, she saw a small boy with pinkish skin and curly red hair that he normally shoved over his eyes, but today was pulled back off his face to reveal his beautiful blue eyes and his flushed freckled cheeks and the fact that he was nervously biting his lip, his blue tooth barely visible, he wore a blue and white tuxedo, complete with bow tie, and held a bouquet of red roses and pink gerber daisies in his shaking hands as he nervously stood in her doorway.

"Andy?" Anny said, surprised to see her four-year-old son standing in her doorway. His cheeks turned even redder as he skiddishly shuffled further into her office and, with shaking hands held up the roses, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy." He said with an anxious smile, sounding a little embarrassed and super nervous.

Anny smiled warmly at her son and carefully got up from her chair with one hand on her pregnant belly and the other on her desk. She then walked over to him and happily took the roses, giving him a kiss on the forehead, making his face burn.

"They're from me and Dad." He quickly explained, "Its for you and Mia and Tia."

Tee, as if on cue, walked into the office, scooped up their son and gave his wife a peck on the cheek, "We were hoping we could take you out to lunch today, that is, if you're not busy." He said, indicating the papers on her desk.

Anny smiled and called out, "Hey, Tiff, I'm going out for lunch, you got this?"

Her sister smirked in response, "Of course I've got this, who do you think you're talking to here?" she teased. The Kanker family thanked her and headed to the elevator, but, before they got on, Andy dashed back to his aunt's desk, a red envelope in his hand with a karate guy sticker sealing it and held it up for her, "Happy Valentine's Day, Aunt Tiffany." He said with a small smile. Tiffany blushed as she accepted the envelope from her nephew and thanked him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Andy, his face the color of his hair, then dashed back to his parents and the three of them (Well, five if you counted the two Anny was carrying inside of her) went inside the elevator and went down to leave for lunch.

Tiffany carefully opened the envelope and pulled out a thick card made from pink construction paper. On the front was a roughly drawn (in crayon) red heart with the words, 'To Ant Tifanie' (Author: he's four, he can't spell, give him a break) inside of it in black letters with little loopsided hearts all around it in many different colors, she opened the card and smiled softly, her eyes glazing over with tears.

Inside was a crayon drawing of her, Andy, Tee, Anny with a huge belly and her parents, with hearts everywhere, 'Hapy Valntine's Day from the famlie that loves you.' He had written inside the card. Tiffany wiped at the tears that were beginning to fall down her face and pressed the card close to her chest.

She had been upset that she had no date for Valentine's Day while her younger sister was happily married, with a child and two more on the way, but looking at the card and the four year old's crayon drawings, she realized that she had something better then a date, she had five (soon to be seven) people who loved her no matter what day it was.

'Today is a good day.' Tiffany decided as she put the card on her desk, displaying it for any incoming visitors and picking up the phone and quickly dialing a number she had memorized so many years ago, "Hey Mom, it's Tiff, I was wondering if you and Dad had any plans for tonight… No? Well, how about we got to dinner tonight, the three of us, does that sound good?" Tiffany brightened at the answer and said, "Okay Mom, I'll pick you up at six, okay?" she paused, listening, her smile growing as replied, "I love you too, Mom, bye."

.

.

.

Ann walked back to her office, she had a busy morning at the pediatric center and needed a moment to rest, she'd had back to back appointments and her feet were sore.

She was glad that Doctor Feeble had been nice enough to volunteer to cover for her afternoon appointments so she could leave early today, he offered to do so after she had helped him by taking his afternoon appointments last month, when his lovely wife'd had given birth to his beautiful little girl, Rosie, whose photos, along with the rest of his family, were taking up the last bit of space he had on the walls of his office, he had to put his license was on the back of his door. She was going to turn him down, but he explained that his wife had gone to her parent's house to introduce them to their new little granddaughter (their flight had been grounded so they couldn't see her until the two had flown over to visit) and that they wouldn't be home until after five, which was when their clinic closed for the day, and that he missed them so much that he could use the distraction.

Ann thanked him profusely for his kindness, but she didn't tell her family so she could surprise them when she arrived home early. She planned to rest for a moment, call back home like she normally did when Larie was home alone with Allbert (one of the many benefits of working as a professor at a university was that Larie got to pick and chose what day and time his classes would be), and then grab her keys, coat and purse, drive home and surprise them, she smiled, it wasn't a very elaborate plan or anything, but she loved seeing them light up with surprised smiles when she arrived home early.

She opened the door and found the light off, which was odd since she had turned it on when she dropped off her coat and purse in here this morning on her chair and turned on her computer before rushing to her first appointment and left it on. She switched it on and saw that her chair was facing away from her and her purse was on her desk, "Huh?" she murmured.

Then the chair spun around, revealing a blue haired man with most of his bangs covering his left eye and a mischievous smile on his face, he had a little boy sitting on his lap, wearing a little black and white suit with a red tie. His blue hair poked out of a little black ski cap and his wide, joyful smile revealing a gap between his two front teeth and curled up his freckled cheeks. He held a bouquet of blue irises and blue wedding bells in his little hands.

Larie lifted their son off of his lap and placed him onto the ground and their little boy ran toward her, making a warm smile grow on her face as he came closer. He stopped in front of his mother and held up the bouquet, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy!" he said cheerfully, "Daddy and I got you these, I do hope you like them!" She knelt down and carefully took the bundle of flowers from her son and looked at them for a moment before pulling Allbert into a hug and kissed his cheek, "This was a wonderful surprise and these flowers are beautiful. I love them, thank you so much, Sweetheart." She said softly, gently combing a few stray hairs off his face with her fingers.

Allbert flushed and began rocking back and forth on his toes and heels bashfully when his mother released him from the hug and stood back up. Larie got up from her office chair and scooped his son up with one arm so he was at their eye level and pulled his wife towards him by wrapping his other arm around her waist and gave her a kiss on the lips, when they parted, he gave her a warm smile, "You free for lunch?" he asked her. She paused, as if she had to think about it, "Hmm, let me see…" she said slipping past her boys and tapping on her computer mouse, making it brighten back to life. She looked at her schedule, "Well, according to my schedule, I have the rest of the day off today!" She said, feigning surprise.

Both Larie and Allbert looked pleasantly surprised, Allbert looked at his mother, his eyes wide with excitement, "Really? You do?"

"Yes, isn't that wonderful!" She said cheerfully as she removed her white coat, stethoscope and shut down her computer and grabbed her purse, flowers and her coat and put it on and kissed both of her boys on the cheek, "Aren't I lucky?" she asked them as she lead them out of her office and locked the door behind her, Larie's arm around her waist. They walked through the hallway, Allbert cheerfully waving and greeting all the nurses, doctors and patients that they passed and wished them a Happy Valentine's Day. All of whom smiled at him and wished him a wonderful Valentine's Day as well in return. Dr. Feeble passed them and Ann mouthed a 'thank you so much for this' to him, he simply smiled and nodded and thanked Allbert for the good wishes and wished him a nice Valentine's day too.

When they finally got into their van and everyone was buckled in, with Larie in the driver's seat, Ann asked, "So where are we going for lunch?"

Larie smiled, "Only the best place in town." He replied, feeling pretty good about himself. Allbert began bouncing in his car seat eagerly, he was hungry and they were going to his favorite restaurant for lunch today.

"So Selina's?" Ann replied flatly, before she chuckled. Larie smiled, "Yeah, I mean, it _is_ the best in town and we know the head chef, so we get special privileges."

"Sounds marvelous." She said with a smile, then gave her husband a peck on the cheek, making him flush.

.

.

.

An sat at the largest booth in the back of Selina's, admiring the daffodil and tiger lily arrangement that had been left on the table, she had gotten a call from Jay asking if she wanted to eat lunch together while she was at the studio, she had been putting the last few touches on the set of a new monster movie she was working on since she had finally finished the monster costume the day before, so she was able to leave early. She looked around for her husband, drumming her fingers against the table, it was busy, but Jay wouldn't have asked her to come here if he was too busy, he would have waited until the restaurant closed and lit some candles so they could eat together by candle light. (they'd done it a few times before)

Then her thoughts were disrupted by a familiar voice, "Excuse me, ma'am." She looked beside her to see April with a notepad and a golf pencil in her hand, she wore a pretty red dress and a black apron that had been folded up a bit to fit her tiny five-year-old frame, "May I please take your order?" she asked, trying hard not to giggle and act professionally.

"Uh…" An looked around her for the menu, only to see a sheet of paper with the words 'Valentine's Day Special' on it and nothing else, An shrugged, she was never picky when it came to eating anything her husband made, since it all _always_ tasted good, he even made veggies taste good, which was great because not only did her kids _want_ to eat their vegetables, but she did too.

An decided to just go with it. She handed her daughter the paper and said, "This one, please." She said, with a smile. April smiled cheerfully and skipped back to the kitchen and greeted all the wait staff she passed with a sweet smile and a jolly greeting, all of which were returned with the same level of cheer.

An smiled, and suddenly saw, to her surprise, Anny, Tee and Andy walked in, she smiled and waved at them. Anny smiled and waved back and made her way to her table, and smiled at her, "Can I sit with ya?" she asked. An nodded, pleased to see her friend and sister-in-law there as well. An watched as Anny carefully slid next to her in the booth as to not to bump her pregnant belly, then sitting with her legs turned to the side so she could easily head to the bathroom if she needed to pee. When she finally got in, she glanced around for her husband and son, only for her to discover that her two beloved red-heads were nowhere in sight, "Hey, where did Tee and Andy go?" she asked.

An glanced around, when she didn't find them, she bent her head down and shrugged, "I dunno, sorry Anny." Anny waved her hand, "Ah, they're probably dishing out another surprise for me, don't worry about it."

"What did you get them?" An asked her.

"Andy got a huge slice of my special chocolate cake for breakfast, like he does every year, he'll probably have about twenty cavities after he has another huge slice for dessert and we'll have a huge dentist bill because of it, but he's happy and that's all a mom can ask for. As for Tee, well…" she patted her belly, "I can't really seduce him like this, so he's got cake too, not that he complained." She said with a chuckle.

"There's always next year, Anny." Ann said playfully as she slipped into the booth with them.

"And a Happy Valentine's day to you too, Doc." Anny said as An gave their sister-in-law a big hug, "And where are your boys?" Anny asked her.

"I saw them slink towards the kitchen, so I assume yours are there too." She replied.

"April's there too." An said, "With Jay and I guess Shelly's with them too."

"So what did you get your boys, Doc?" Anny asked their brainy friend.

"Well, Allbert had been saving up all his money so he could buy his own microscope, so after a nice slice of pear cobbler for dessert, Larie and I will give him the microscope we bought with Larie's teacher discount. As for Larie…" Ann smiled despite herself and shrugged, "Well, Larie will get what he gets every year."

"Oh, _the poor thing_." Anny chuckled.

"I got my kids chocolates and art supplies!" An said cheerfully.

"What about Jay?" Ann asked her. An smiled proudly, "It's a surprise!" Her sisters-in-law smiled at her, teased her for a bit by guessing what she might have in store for Jay. After laughing and chucking at Anny's idea of kinky chicken role-playing, the women discussed their weeks.

"…So then I put on the head and the intern comes in to ask Susan to come on set to discuss the scene, and I was just going into the roar with the head on, to show her how she should do it, I had no idea he was behind me, so when I turned to roar, I did it in the intern's face and made the intern so scared, he peed his pants." An said, looking a little guilty, Anny burst out laughing, going as far as banging her fists on the table, Ann was a little more sympathetic and simply chuckled a bit before patting An on the back and saying, "I'm sure that intern knew you meant no harm." She said, laughter still in her voice.

"He refuses to go into the dressing room when I'm working on a costume." An said remorsefully.

The other two Ans stifled their chuckles as they comforted her and changed the subject to a happier one, barely containing their eagerness to see what their families had in store for them today. Their children came out of the kitchen, single file, each holding one plate with a small cake, their fathers chuckling behind them. When they placed the cakes in the table, it was revealed that not only did each cake have a word on it, but the cakes had a special message for the mothers; 'Happy Valentine's Day Mommy!'

The women melted at the sight and the two non-pregnant ones got up from their table and pulled their families into big, loving hugs and covered them with kisses. Anny, who couldn't get up too quickly due to her belly, spread her arms out and pulled her boys in close once they were at arm's length.

"This to make up for last year?" Anny teased, making the men wince.

Last year, in an attempt to woo their wives, the Kanker men had taken their children out in the old retro van to buy some flowers after April suggested that they could surprised their mothers by having them come home to a house full of flora… only for them to end up stuck in the middle of the road in the middle of an ice storm with a flat tire, no signal, and no one knowing where they were. After three hours of trying to call for help, addressing to the frightened children and trying to fix the tire while being whacked by whipping waves of ice, a plow came by and offered them all a lift home, the Kanker brothers were scolded for making their wives worry, but in the end, the Ans were just relieved that their families were okay and it wasn't as if they had any control over what had happened, so they didn't get into too much trouble.

"We just wanted ya to have a nice Valentines Day with us." Tee finally replied, the others nodding in agreement before they all slipped into the booth and dug into the cakes and began happily chatting and laughing and enjoying themselves.

Then Anny stiffened suddenly and gripped the sides of the table as a sound similar to water rolling down leather suddenly silenced the table.

"Anny?" Ann called, "Are you alright?"

"Is it the babies?" An asked.

Anny nodded slowly and took in a deep breath before saying, "I think." Another breath, "My water." Another breath, "Just broke."

The next few minutes were a blur to Andy as Uncle Jay called for some of the bus boys to block off their table and put the 'caution, wet floor' sign in front of the blockade to make sure no one slipped on the 'water'. Uncle Larie helped Allbert, Sheldon and April out of the booth safely and took Andy from his mother's arms. His Aunt An and his dad helped her out of the booth and Aunt Double-N called his mom's doctor as she lead their party out to her van and all three women climbed into the car with his dad hopping into the driver's seat, his Uncle Jay told them that they'd come in a bit with food for them and they'd bring the kids to visit.

Andy joined his cousins in giving his mother kisses and hugs before they left, giving her belly two kisses and a gentle hug and telling his sisters that he'd see them soon before hugging his dad and watching them drive away.

Once the van was out of sight, he looked up at his Uncle Larie, "Hey Uncle Larie, could I call my Aunt Tiffany on your phone?" His blue haired uncle seemed surprised by the request for a minute before asking if he knew the number, Andy nodded and recited it for his uncle before the man passed him the phone.

"Hello, Anny Kanker's office, Tiffany speaking." He heard his aunt recite in a calm voice.

"Aunt Tiff, it's me, Andy…"

.

.

.

Anny had been pushing and was taking a breather for a bit. She huffed and puffed the way she was supposed to as she turned to her husband, who gently rubbed her hand, "Andy will be here soon, Anny, just keep breathing." He said in a soft voice.

She looked at the door, a little hurt. Her friends had been with her since they left Selina's, with Double-N helping her doctor due to the hospital being short on hands that day and An holding her right hand and Tee held her left while she pushed.

An and Double-N's husbands and children had come to see them already, her brothers-in-law holding a few packages while they came into visit her and tell her that she was doing a great job before being herded out of the room by their parents, who bend down and handed them their valentine's gifts.

April and Sheldon jumped up and down when they opened their presents gave their parents huge hugs, then plopped down on the ground and began drawing congratulations cards for Anny, munching on the sweets as they worked and shared some of their new pack of paper, crayons, markets and colored pencils with Allbert, who had cried out with delight at his new microscope and thanked his parents over and over again while hugging them tight before seeing what his cousins were doing and politely asked his father to hold onto his present before walking over and asking to join them. While the children worked, her brothers in law passed their wives their gifts, and received smoochies and hugs before whispering in their ears about the gifts they got them while the children gave her their cards and wished her a Happy Valentine's Day. She thanked her niece and nephews while trying not to crack up at the faces Larie and Jay were making before her friends hugged and kissed their families once more and they left the hospital, the children happily chattering on about amazing their presents were and questioning why Andy had not been there yet.

Her friends returned from seeing their families off…Arriving in her doorway with her sister, parents, in-laws, her grandma-in-law and her son, who held up two pink blankets, one covered in the letter M and one covered with the letter T.

"Aunt Tiff and me got these after we came up with their names!" Andy explained as he quickly scuttled over towards his mother and held them up to her, "That way, we can tell them apart!"

"Told ya he would be here." Tee purred victoriously. Anny smiled, tears in her eyes as pulled her little boy into her arms, "Jeez, and here I was thinking you were gonna wait until the morning ta visit." She murmured softly as she gently threaded her fingers through her son's red curls.

"No way! I just had to call Aunt Tiff and wait for her to pick me up so we could get 'um from her place and some weird lady wouldn't let the guys in the car in front of 'um pass until Aunt Tiff yelled at her." (for reference and lolz, look at the 'April Showers' comics in my DA gallery)

Anny kissed her son again, only for her to feel a fresh wave of pain and ask her Dad to take Andy out into the waiting room while she went back to pushing, her friends taking their previous positions as the rest of the family was sent back to the waiting room.

Anny put a determined pout on her face as she began pushing again, determined to get the twins out as soon as she could safely could so her son could meet his little sisters.

.

.

.

Andy struggled to keep his eyes open, it was nine-thirty and it was _way_ past his bedtime. His family assured him that they'd wake him when he could see his new sister, but he pulled his face into a stubborn scowl and shook his head as he rubbed his eyes, saying that he was a big brother and he was gonna wait up as long as he had to so he could meet his new little sisters as soon as possible.

They then all looked at each other, remembered that this boy had inherited a long stubborn streak from his parents and simply decided to let him be.

He collapsed into sleep at ten thirty, his stubbornness finally losing out to pure exhaustion, only to be woken up ten minutes later after by his great grandmother after the nurse told them that the little girls had been born, despite the others' pleads to let the boy sleep. But Gladys the Great scowled and said, "The boy has been waiting for almost a year for his new sisters and I'm not gonna let him wait a moment longer!"

Andy walked groggily towards the door, his Aunt An, who looked tired and was cradling her hand near the entrance of the room until she saw Andy. She walked over and picked the boy up, lifting him into the air and making him laugh and wake up before placing him on the ground, "Go on!" she urged, indicating the door where his mother had been and walked him halfway down the hall before he insisted that he could walk, that he wasn't that tired. It was a lie that An would never believe in a million years, but being an older sibling herself, she knew how exciting it was to hold your new baby sibling for the first time, so she put him down and let him race to the door himself to meet two doctors, one of them being his Aunt Double-N who smiled tiredly at him as she knelt down, "Are you ready to meet Mia and Tia?"

"Yeah! 'Course!" he cried, his exhaustion still evident in his voice. His aunt smiled and opened the door, "Anny, Tee, Andy's here to meet Mia and Tia."

"Let 'um in," Anny said softly. She opened the door and ushered the others inside while she walked towards her fellow An and watched from afar as Andy walked up to his Mom, who was holding two small creatures wrapped in the blankets he had brought earlier. His dad scooped him up and slipped him into his mother's lap, "Mia, Tia, meet your big brother, Andy." His mother said as she carefully placed the little ones in his arms. Andy looked at the little sleeping faces and smiled.

"Hiya… I'm… I'm yer big brother," he said, his voice becoming thick with emotion, "And I _promise_ to take good care of ya." He then looked up at his parents, "This is the best Valentine's Day ever." They chuckled and gently pulled their children into a big, gentle hug.

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Eight Years Later

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Mia, Tia and Kim are curled up in their sleeping bags, giggling and murmuring to each other, a worn cloth poking out of both girls' sleeping bags.

"Hey, Mia and Tia, can I ask you two something?" Kim whispered.

"Yeah!" Mia said.

"Of course!" Tia agreed.

"Why do you two still sleep with those old blankets?"

The twins looked at each other, smiled then replied in unison, "Cause they were the first presents we ever got!"


	12. Muffin Hunt (Luca)

Carla smiled as she and her husband walked over to their daughter's house. Today she, her daughter and her sisters-in-law were having a Moms Only Spa Day. She had been excited about this ever since Ann had found a coupon for four at a local spa and asked if she and her aunts wanted to have a girl's day together, her sister-in-law, Fiona, joked that it was going to be a Moms Only affair, pointing out that all four of them were mothers now due to Ann having a baby a few months ago, before her other sister-in-law, Miranda, suggest they schedule a spa day a week before Mother's Day so they could be pampered at a spa and still enjoy their families spoiling them on Mother's Day.

Now, Carla had been unable to spend much time with Ann when she was a child due to her work, but now that she was older and could spend more time with her family and less time in the office, she had happily been working hard to make up for all that lost time by helping her daughter care for her beautiful grandson, but to have a _spa day_ with her baby girl? On a date BEFORE Mother's Day instead of much, much later? She quickly urged her daughter to call to schedule their appointment, which her sisters-in-law insisted they pay for, saying that they owed Carla and Ann after having them babysit Luca at the last second so many times, it was the least they could do. The grandmother was practically bouncing the whole way to her daughter's house, her husband kindly and admirably holding in his laughter at her child-like eagerness while making sure she didn't hurt herself while doing so (after all, they weren't young anymore, they could easily break a bone from a fall).

They reached the house at the same time as Fiona and Miranda, who were herding their son, Luca, towards the door.

"I can't believe you didn't eat breakfast." Miranda sighed with a shake of her head, "I _did_ eat something, Mom." The eight year old insisted.

"A couple of cookies don't count as breakfast." Fiona retorted.

Luca caught a glimpse of his aunt and uncle and waved, "Hi Uncle Lennard! Hi Aunt Carla!" he called, hoping his relatives would distract his mothers long enough until Ann opened the door and the women left for their spa day and would forget that he ate two handfuls of cookies his mothers had made for the bake sale at his school this morning instead of a more filling breakfast.

"Hello Luca!" His Aunt cheerfully replied as the elderly couple reached them, "Good Morning Luca," His Uncle said before the two exchanged greetings with his mothers.

"Good Morning Everyone!" A familiar voice sang from the doorway.

They turned to see Ann and Larie smiling at them from the doorway, a sleepy Allbert in Larie's arms, "Mornin'" Larie called to the crowd as his wife gently took their son's hand and waved it at her family.

They walked out onto the front lawn and joined the others, passing the infant around to be adored by the women before they kissed their boys good bye, hopped into Miranda's car and waved good bye before driving away.

"Larie, do you have anything that Luca can eat?" Lennard asked as he and his nephew followed his son-in-law and his now snoozing grandson inside.

Larie looked at Luca, surprised that his vigilant mothers would have let him leave the house without any food in his belly, "You missed breakfast?" he asked.

"I ate before we left…" Luca began, only for Lennard to chime in with, "Cookies don't count as breakfast." Luca looked at his uncle, surprised as the old man cracked a mischievous smile that he'd seen on his mother often enough and chuckled, "I may be old, but I am _not_ deaf." Larie let out a snort of laughter before saying that, "Ann made some blueberry muffins yesterday, how about eggs, bacon, a muffin and orange juice?"

Luca's mouth watered a bit at the suggestion, the only reason he had resorted to eating a couple of cookies was that he had stayed up later than he should have reading a book Ann had recommended to him and got up late, leaving very little time to eat a proper meal before they left and he was still quite hungry and he nodded eagerly, his cousin-in-law offered the same to his uncle, the man turned down the eggs and bacon, but said he would enjoy a muffin and orange juice and could hold Allbert while he cooked some breakfast for Luca. Larie thanked him before carefully passing his sleeping infant son to his father-in-law before gathering glasses and plates and putting them on the table before opening the fridge and pulled out the juice, eggs and bacon.

Lennard cradled his grandson in his arms, admiring the slumbering child while the baby's father poured them all (minus Allbert, who enjoyed some nice milk before his mother left) some juice before heading into the pantry, pulling out two muffins and dropping them onto their plates as he walked to the stove and began pulling out a pan.

Luca looked at the muffin on his plate, then at Larie, who was turning on the heat as he called out, "If my Muffin was here, she would offer ya a bunch of different kinds of eggs, but I only know how to do scrambled, that okay?"

"Yeah…" Luca said, pensive for a moment before asking, "Hey Larie?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you call Ann 'Muffin'?" Luca asked.

The men in the room were surprised by the question, but Lennard quickly piped up with an, "Actually, I've been quite curious about that too…"

Larie paused, blushed a bit, then sighed as he turned off the heat and took a seat between Lennard and Luca, "I liked Ann since I met her, so naturally, when my brothers and I went to visit my mom after meeting her, I told her all about her." He smiled at the memory, "my mom said that she was proud that I had fallen for a 'Muffin'." He laughed at the confused expressions of his in-laws, "Yeah, my brothers and I were confused at first too! Then she explained that a Muffin is a person who you love for who they are and not just for their looks…" he paused, seeing that his guests were still confused then got up and grabbed another muffin and a cupcake from the pantry. "Look," he said, placing the two baked goods on the table and pointed to the cupcake, "With cupcakes and stuff, they cover it in frosting and fancy paper and stuff to make it look nice and make ya wanna eat it. Ya don't know if you're really getting' what you want, ya don't know if it's as good as it looks and ya don't know if it's even what it seems ta be… " he paused then corrected himself, "Well, this one _is_ as good as it looks because Ann made it, but with other cupcakes ya don't know. Now with a muffin." He pointed to the muffin, "People like them for what they are, they don't have fancy icing or fillings or paper or decorations, but they don't need 'um. You could put them in the plainest paper and leave 'um bare and people will still love um, cause they're great on their own. Ya can doll 'um up and put all sorts of stuff on them to make them look or taste a little better, but all in all..." He took a bite of the muffin, "Ya can never go wrong with a Muffin." He said, "And that's why I call her that, cause no matter what she wears or what she does with 'er hair or make up or what have 'ya, Ann will always be the perfect woman fer me and makes me happier than any other person ever could." He took another bite of his muffin, "Well, her and All here" he said, gently threading his fingers through his boy's blue hair, making the infant smile in his sleep.

After admiring his child for a moment, he finished his muffin and placed the cupcake back into the pantry and began making the eggs and bacon.

Luca stared at the muffin on his plate thoughtfully, only snapping out of it when Larie placed the promised platter in front of him.

"Something wrong Luca?" Lennard asked, a bit concerned that his nephew had been so quiet for so long.

"No… I'm just wondering if I'll find my own 'Muffin' someday…" Luca replied softly as he scooped up some food onto his fork and took a bite. The elder men chuckled and Larie ruffled his hair, "You'll find her, Luca, don't you worry about it."

"Indeed." Lennard agreed, then asked, "But if you'd like to get a head start on your search, how about after we eat, we go to the aquarium for a day of male bonding and soul searching?"

"Okay!" Luca eagerly consented, "Can we go to the dolphin show?"

"Sounds good to me." Larie said with a chuckle as his son began to stir a bit, "Looks like All is interested too, cause he's waking up a bit."

"Then it's settled," Lennard declared as he rose his glass, "The Muffin hunt will begin after breakfast!"

"Huzzah!" Larie and Luca cheered as they gently tapped their glasses with his and all took a swig of their orange juice.

"Ahhh…" Allbert moaned drowsily, raising his arm a bit as if to join their toast, making the older males chuckle while Luca dug into his breakfast with vigor, after all, not only were they going to try to find his dream girl, but they were also gonna see a dolphin show, today was going to be awesome!

.

While the hunt was a failure, the four of them had a blast at the aquarium and a nice dinner at Selina's before coming back to Ann and Larie's house at the same time the girls came home. Luca waved goodbye to the rest of his family as his mom pulled out of the driveway and drove towards home. The boy leaned his head back and closed his eyes and wondered when he'd meet his 'Muffin' and what she would be like.

.

~Eleven years later~

.

Luca entered the airport with his mothers, they were going to Spain for a romantic get away for their 30th wedding anniversary.

He couldn't help but swell a bit with pride, something often went wrong when he tried to do something nice for his moms' anniversary, but not this year. He worked all year and saved up every paycheck he'd gotten to pay for this trip for his mothers (Although the rest of the family pitched in a considerable amount, he was footing most of the bill). They would fly in first class to Spain and back and they had a gorgeous suite with a breathtaking view that was worthy of one best hotels in Europe. And while the dent to his savings had been enormous, the shocked, happy faces his mothers made when he had given them their tickets made it totally worth it.

The rest of their family would have been there to send them off too, however Ann recently had another baby (Emma) and had just brought her home, so the rest of the family were helping her and Larie with, not only their new bundle of joy, but their other four children, three of whom were still quite young.

Luca was actually going to stay with his Aunt and Uncle so he could help out around Ann's house without spending a week on the couch or on an air mattress set up on the floor in Allbert's room.

His mothers were bouncing on their toes with excitement, they hadn't had a vacation in forever and for it to be a gift from their beloved baby boy just made it all the more wonderful.

He chuckled as he watched his mothers bounce up and down as they dropped off their luggage, happily chatting a bit with the man behind the counter.

He didn't notice the poor girl staggering around with a purse, a backpack and a single rolling suitcase, looking confused as she glanced around the large area until she tripped and fell right in front of him.

"Holy-! Are you okay?" he asked as he helped the poor girl back onto her feet.

She opened her mouth, then stopped herself, as if remembering something (to speak English and not Hindi, since he probably wouldn't understand it), before finally speaking "Yeah… I'm fine… Sorry… I didn't mean to… Are you okay?" she managed, her exhaustion as noticeable in her tone as her cute Indian accent as she struggled to try to strain her tired brain to find the right words.

Not that Luca minded, it gave him time to get a good look at the girl. Her long dark hair was messy and tangled, a few long strands soaked were stuck to her forehead with sweat while the rest of it was shoved into an off center bun that was slowly coming undone. There were large, dark bags under her caramel colored eyes and her make up was smudged. Her clothes were wrinkled and covered in crumbs and a large damp spot on her side what he guessed from the smell was orange juice. But despite all of that, Luca thought she was absolutely radiant. He couldn't put his finger exactly as to why he felt this way, but maybe, just maybe it was…

"Is she okay?" Miranda asked, surprising both of them that his mothers materialized beside them.

"That was a pretty bad fall, do you need to sit down?" Fiona suggested as she and her wife gently wiped away at any dust they saw on the young lady before them.

"I-I'm fine, honest…" she began, but his mothers were already leading them to the food court. They plopped her down into a chair and told Luca to make sure she stayed there until they got back and headed to the nearest coffee shop and got her a big cup of joe before they left to go through the TSA screening and check into their flight, waving good bye to the two youngsters before they rushed off into a large crowd.

"Sorry about that" Luca said as soon as the two older women were out of earshot, unable to hold back a smile as he said that, "My moms can be overbearing at times."

"Your moms?" she repeated, sounding a bit confused. Although if it was because the coffee hadn't kicked in yet, or because she hadn't met many lesbian parents growing up, he had no idea and he didn't ask.

"Yup." He said as he took a seat beside her, "I was such a big momma's boy that I needed two of them." She chuckled a bit before he held out his hand, "Luca Nolland-Cortez, it's nice to meet you..." He paused and looked at her expectantly, "Ummm…" he teased. She rolled her eyes at him and smiled as she took his hand and gave it a firm shake, "Isori Patel." She said with a chuckle.

"So what brings you out here, Isori?"

"I'm visiting a family friends, they had a new baby recently."

"Nice, my cousin Ann had a baby last week, I'm heading to her house after this to help cook dinner for her family with my aunt and uncle."

"Wait, wait…" Isori said, holding her hands up as if to stop him, "Hang on, the coffee is kicking in." Luca held his hands up in surrender and stifled himself as he watched her rub her temples for a moment and think.

"You said your last name was Nolland?"

"Nolland-Cortez." Luca corrected with a playful smirk.

"As in, Dr. Anna Marie Kanker's maiden name?" She continued, ignoring the last bit.

"Yup."

"So you're going to Dr. Kanker's house?"

"Yup."

She fidgeted in her seat a bit before asking, "Do you think you can give me a ride over to her house?"

"Sure." He said, without skipping a beat, "We can head over as soon as you're done with your coffee. I'll text them and let them know we'll be over in a bit."

"Thank you." She sighed, relieved as she took another sip of her coffee.

"No problem." He replied before tapping a message to Larie on his phone;

'Found my Muffin (Isori), call off the hunt. Bringing her by in a bit'

Luca sent it and chatted with Isori until she finished her coffee and lead her to his car. Right as he was about to leave, he got a response from Larie:

'Nice. See you soon.'


End file.
